By now, I’m sure that the vast majority of people will have heard of The Lion King. That 1994 Disney animated musical drama by directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff was basically Shakespeare’s Hamlet but with funny talking animals doing some very unfunny things a lot of times. That combination turned that movie into a classic, to the point where it’s now preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry. Not bad for Disney. It’s a shame that Disney then continued to try to milk more money out of it. First with the 1998 sequel (pretty good), and then a 2004 prequel (still somehow pretty good), and then a live-action remake in 2019 which dropped the ball entirely into the depths of the abyss in spite of it making so much money for Disney. Now, we might be seeing the culmination of Disney’s live-action remake madness.
National Geographic is proud to announce their upcoming four-part live-action dramatized nature documentary: LION. This will basically be a heavily dramatized nature documentary chronicling four years in the life of a random male lion cub named Kio as he grows from small cub to adult lion “king”. That documentary will be available for streaming on August 19, 2026 exclusively on Disney+ and Hulu.
As part of this announcement, National Geographic has also released a brand new official trailer for LION. You cna watch that either on YouTube or just look below:
LION | Official Trailer | National Geographic
- With narration by O.J. Lynch (Mufasa, “The Lion King” stage production), LION brings to life the extraordinary true story of the Maasai Mara’s lion kings, queens and a new hero named Kio. Blending Favreau’s distinctive storytelling and passion with Gunton’s world-class natural history expertise, the ambitious series goes beyond traditional wildlife documentaries to deliver a gripping, blockbuster drama rooted in documentary truth.
- Zimmer leads the score alongside Bleeding Fingers Music’s Niccolò Pacella and George Hutson Warren, with additional vocals from the Nairobi Chamber Chorus. Drawing on recordings captured in the Maasai Mara, including local singers, instruments and even lion roars, the music blends the scale of a cinematic adventure with the emotional texture of the wild, while subtly weaving in rerecorded musical nods to “The Lion King.” The original series soundtrack will be released through Hollywood Records on Aug. 21 and will be available wherever music is streamed.
- Four years in the making and filmed in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, this is the first natural history production to document a lion’s complete journey from vulnerable cub to king. The crew, including local Kenyan filmmakers, logged nearly 1,400 filming days across 52 shoots — the most time ever spent in the field exclusively following a single pride.
LION Attempts to Turn Real Life Lions into The Lion King
Honestly, I’m on the fence about LION. On one hand, it looks like it’s a very high quality nature documentary detailing every tidbit of a lion’s life from cub to adulthood. Disney even hired local Kenyan filmmakers to film those details, which is quite a nice bit of representation. Yes, it ultimately is likely more due to Disney wanting to cheapen production costs by hiring locally more than anything else, and that is one of the issues. Here’s hoping all those Kenyan filmmakers get their due credit in the credits.
However, the other big problem is that National Geographic and by extension Disney appears to be very heavily dramatizing LION. To the point of making the main character lion into a Simba for the purposes of the narrative. Realistically, there is no “king” of Africa’s ecosystem. Yes, the lion is an apex predator, but it doesn’t mean that they’re the sole monarchs of the savannah. They share that niche with the nile crocodile and the spotted hyena, the latter of which is quite ironic given that they’re the villains of The Lion King. It’s that attempt to make this documentary into The Lion King that has me worried, because I’m afraid that this will be over-dramatized to unrealistic degrees. Alas, we will have to wait for August 19 to see if those fears become real.
What do you all think? Are you interested in checking out LION? Are you too worried about this nature documentary becoming unrealistic? Tell us your prideful thoughts in the comments section below.
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