The Lion King to create a live action movie in 2019

As published on Cinema Blend, The Lion King is moving towards following it’s counterpart Jungle book’s footsteps to create a live action movie.

Disney has an impressive library of animated movies, but since the start of the decade, the studio has been selecting several stories from it’s collection to adapt for live action movie. This includes using the best special and visual effects the movie-making industry has to offer to achieve a live action look for Disney movies that couldn't be fully or partially adapted in traditional live action. The Jungle Book did that in 2016 with everything that wasn't Mowgli, and following in its footsteps is The Lion King, arguably the biggest hit from the Disney Renaissance era.

The 1994 Lion King is still one of Disney's most popular releases, so this "live action" remake has its hands full to come anywhere close to the legacy its animated original has built up. That being said, the news surrounding the movie indicates that this is shaping up to be one of the studio's most ambitious movies.

The Lion King will be released in theaters on July 19, 2019, a little over 25 years after the animated movie was released. Disney's recent live action remakes have traditionally come out between March and May, so putting Lion King in the latter half of the summer movie season is an interesting move. The main reason for this is likely because Dumbo is already dated for March 29 of that same year, and packing two remakes within a month or two of each other would be over saturation. Of course, this is Disney we're talking about; the studio's track record with movies in the summer (even if it's more on the commercial side than the critical) is typically great. Plus, the original Lion King movie remains one of Disney's most popular animated releases, so you can be sure that audiences will come out in droves to see this new adaptation. So, the July release date probably won't affect The Lion King's performance negatively, although that may change if another studio schedules its own highly-anticipated blockbuster for that same opening weekend.