Amy Sedaris has reportedly joined the cast of Disney‘s upcoming Lion King remake.
Sources close to the hotly anticipated production told Variety that Sedaris was officially on board. They say she will play a new character, not featured in the 1994 animated version of the story.
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Sedaris will reportedly provide the voice for a small rodent called an elephant shrew. The small mouse-like creatures have long noses, vaguely resembling elephant trunks. They are known for being incredibly quick.
Sedaris is no stranger to doing voice work for snarky animals. For the last several years, she has been in the main cast of Netflix’s original animated series BoJack Horseman. She plays Princess Carolyn, a cat with a complicated relationship to BoJack (Will Arnett). It was her performance there — and in many other places over the years — that earned her her spot amongst the Lion King A-listers.
Disney’s new rendition of The Lion King stars Donald Glover as Simba. James Earl Jones will reprise his role as Mufasa, while Beyonce Knowles is taking over as Nala. Other cast members include Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Kani, Keegan-Michael Key, John Oliver, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen and Eric Andre.
The whole production is under the leadership of director Jon Favreau. Favreau is a safe bet for Disney, having overseen some incredibly successful projects for the company before. He even directed the first Iron Man movie back in 2008, which, in many peoples’ eyes, launched the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It is also worth noting that Iron Man and all the other Marvel films now under the Disney banner have the same style of life-like CGI as the upcoming Lion King remake. Ever since the first teaser came out, the debate has raged on social media as to whether or not The Lion King can rightly be called “live-action.”
IT’S. NOT. A. LIVE. ACTION. LION. KING. IT’S. STILL. A. CARTOON.
— Daniel Spenser (@DanSpenser) November 23, 2018
“IT’S. NOT. A. LIVE. ACTION. LION. KING. IT’S. STILL. A. CARTOON,” one person tweeted.
“Wow I just watched that new Lion King trailer and I completely misunderstood what live action meant,” joked another, “because I kept waiting for Beyonce to appear in a lion costume.”
“People really out here tripping that the Lion King isn’t actually ‘live action’ but just animated, as if training thousands of wild animals and filming them having conversations is just some normal, doable s—,” a third person added.
Either way, The Lion King has a lot of momentum behind it now, with the most-watched trailer debut of all time. As if that weren’t enough, Sedaris has now joined the stampede.
The Lion King hits theaters on July 19, 2019.
