The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (partially found production material and deleted scenes of Disney animated sequel film; 1995-1998)

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TLK2 LOGO FINAL.jpeg

The final film's title card.

Status: Partially Found

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride also stylized as The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride is a direct-to-video sequel to the 1994 film The Lion King made by Disney in 1998. Widely considered by many to be one of the best Disney direct-to-video sequels, it underwent many changes before its release in 1998.

Early Production

Discussion began about the possibility of a direct-to-video sequel to The Lion King before the first film even hit theaters. According to some concept art of Kiara, production of the sequel dates back to January 26th, 1995, roughly seven months after the original film’s release. Around that time, the sequel was originally titled Return to Pride Rock.[1]

Early drafts of the film in mid-to-late 1995 saw Simba having two cubs: Chaka and Shani, who would later go onto be Kiara. Eventually Chaka was cut from the film for unknown reasons, and in later drafts, Simba would only have Shani as his child.[2]

One 1995 script envisioned Nala singing a lullaby to Shani, whilst Simba hides his disappointment of not having a son. Later on, we would see an older Shani reject a fleet of suitors coming her way much to Simba’s frustration, although this concept would later be dropped from the film, as Kiara is not said to have any betrothals.

Many early treatments saw Kovu as the orphaned son of the villainous Scar falling in love with the daughter of Simba. According to production notes of the film dated back in October of 1995, the film’s antagonist would have been Brutus, a rouge elephant who plans to take over the Pride Lands. Working alongside the hyenas in the original film, they would use Scar’s son as a puppet ruler to fight Simba in order to take control. He would also have worked along side one of Shani’s male suitors (tentatively dubbed Lion X), who would have seen the attraction between Kovu and Shani, and thus kidnap the latter in the Elephant Graveyard to use as a bargaining chip against the former.

Later drafts in 1996 saw Kovu being raised in exile by his aunt Bianca, (an early iteration of Zira). Bianca would have teamed up with Shenzi, Banzai, Ed, and their clan to take revenge on Simba by targeting him and his daughter.[3] One iteration would have shown Kovu abandoning Bianca to make a commitment to Shani whilst another would show the hyena trio discovering Kovu and Shani’s romance and revealing Bianca’s ulterior motives. Another iteration has Simba’s treatment of Kovu be considerably kinder than it was in the final film. In the latest known early draft, climax of the film would’ve seen Bianca leading an army of hyenas into the Pride Lands, in which they attack and overwhelm Simba.

One 1996 script shows Kovu and Kiara (then named Aisha) playing tag in a crystal cave with similar dialog to the final version Albeit minus Kovu suggesting to run away and "start a pride" [4]

Several scenes and characters in the early drafts were cut, for instance, Binti, a love interest for Zazu who would have married him and reared eight chicks at the end of the film. There was also concept artwork of two mandrills, Claw and Fang, whose roles were unknown.[5]

There had also been a dream-sequence in which Simba communicated with his father, Mufasa to lament his daughter’s relationship with Kovu to which Mufasa would warn Simba to let go of his shadows, lest he let his family and the Circle of Life break apart. James Earl Jones, the voice actor for Murasa was shown recording lines for this deleted scene in the Proud of Simba’s Pride documentary. "You have let your family break apart, and in doing so, you have broken the Circle of Life."

A 1996 Variety article describes Cheech Marin, the voice actor for Banzai in the original film, reprising his role for Banzai in the sequel, although it is unknown if Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Cummings would have returned as Shenzi and Ed respectively.[6] The hyenas would ultimately be cut from the film and replaced with Outsider lions.

Bianca would later be renamed Zira presumably due to having no Swahili origins, and would be changed to Kovu’s mother rather than his aunt.

Later on that year, Darrell Rooney and Jeannine Roussel had signed up to direct and produce the sequel, in which production had underwent a complete overhaul, shifting the story to that of an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

According to Darrell Rooney Zira was designed to be Scar’s mate, so that their son Kovu would have a claim to rule the pride. In the selling draft, Kovu was given two siblings, Nuka and Vitani, characters who were added into the final draft of the film; They had also been Scar and Zira’s children in the draft. Kovu would have seduced Simba’s daughter Kiara in order to get to Simba, only to fall in love with her. Micheal Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, objected to this, as this would have lead to an incestuous relationship between Kiara and Kovu as first-cousins once removed. This idea was scrapped and thus in the final film, it is clarified that Kovu holds no biological relationship with Scar. Additionally, Scar and Zira’s relationship was written to be purposefully obscure in hopes of making her “just a follower” suggesting that none of Zira’s children are related to Scar.

Concept artwork shows that Kovu was originally intended to inherit many of Scar’s physical traits, such as a sleek black mane, a lanky figure, brownish orange-fur, and green eyes. These features were all dulled once Kovu was no longer written to be the son of Scar.

Later Production

In a workprint, Kiara is shown having ear rims. In the workprint, Rafiki is seen painting on his tree commenting on the pride's secure future. Mufasa then messes up the painting and Rafiki discovers there's another cub, Rafiki accuses Mufasa of breaking the circle but then he sees the new cub as trouble.

Unlike the final film where Kovu is not seen training whatsoever. he is seen training by hunting termites, he is seen hunting one and letting it go seeing it did him no harm which Zira then kills stating it as a weakness. Nuka and Vitani are later seen informing Zira about a new cub Zira blames Simba for Scar's death Nuka later requests that as the oldest, he should be king but Zira snaps at him reminding him that Kovu is the Chosen One, so he will be king. After Nuka complies with his mother's vision, Zira climbs up on a rock point to gaze out over the Pride Lands with her children following her. She marvels at how green and "inviting" it is and informs her children that they truly belong there. She makes a promise to Scar that she and her pride will reclaim his Kingdom.

"My Lullaby" was significantly different with a different instrumental and different singer. Originally Nuka's death was longer when Nuka tells his mother that he has finally received his attention from her, Zira gives a true loving smile to Nuka as she holds his head before he passes away. During Kovu's exile, there was an additional scene during Kovu's judgment Kiara was also seen crying. "Not One of Us" had a different instrumental than the final one. "Love Will Find a Way" also have a different instrumental Kovu, and Kiara were supposed to race each other back.

Originally Zira's death was much darker than the finalized version with Zira refusing Kiara's help and deliberately throwing herself into the river. Kovu mourning his mother's death and one of Kiara's lines were not present. There was also a post-credit scene of Timon and Pumbaa eating termites in the Outlands.[7]

Availability

Several photos and scans of scripts have surfaced online and several script have known to appear on auction sites in the past however no full scripts are known to have been fully found as the the photos and scans tend to vary from multiple scripts. However on the 26th of Janurary 2024 a Reddit user by the name of ShabaTLK had revealed to have owned a script on the Lion King Subreddit from 1996 and plans to make several analysis videos on the script.

It is rumored and speculated that Nuka's death and Zira's death were finished and shown with multiple people claiming to have seen it or have it albeit with no proof. In the film itself, there is evidence of such with Nuka being heard saying "Didn't I?" and Zira smiling while falling.

With no proper confirmation, it is unknown if these rumors are true.

Gallery

Images

Videos

Deleted dialogues from the film.

The Workprint.

A fan-made recreation of Zira's death.

A clip of the movie featuring the finalized version of Nuka's death.

A fan-made recreation of Nuka's death.

See Also

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Animation (Disney)

Animation (Pixar)

Audio

Live Action

Short Films

References

External Links