Barry Jenkins, Lin-Manuel Miranda share inspiration behind 'Mufasa: The Lion King'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "Mufasa: The Lion King" roars into theaters this week, and it is expected to be a holiday blockbuster.

Director Barry Jenkins and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda told ABC7 Chicago's Hosea Sanders about this epic achievement.

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Miranda talked about his inspiration for the music.

"I stand on the shoulders of artists who created, practically, a genre of music with "The Lion King." African rhythms and harmonies, starting with Elton John and Tim Rice on the original soundtrack," Miranda said. "But also, the Broadway incarnation, which is one of our greatest and longest running musicals on Broadway. Beyoncé created that 'inspired by' album in 2019 and expanded what the music of the Lion King could do."

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"I felt like there was a lot of space to play, and I really took my cues from this wonderful script. Half the titles of my songs began as lines of dialogue, so I didn't have to look too much further from Barry for my inspiration," he continued.

Jenkins talked about how cultural representation plays out in the telling of this story.

"People singing in Swahili, singing sometimes in Zulu, all those things were so rich and very important to me. Working on something like 'The Lion King' - which transcends cultures, languages, if I do this gesture with a kitten, you know what I'm referencing - You can't permeate culture more than a story like this," Jenkins said. "No one's purely good or evil; there's a complex set of circumstances and choices that lead up to someone becoming good or becoming evil. All those things, I thought, were very worth exploring.

"Mufasa: The Lion King" opens "officially" on Friday.

But if you can't wait, there are preview showings in Chicago and its suburbs that start Thursday afternoon!

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