The lion king trailer is the most watched in 24 hours by Disney – Variety

The anticipation of the deployment of live adaptations by Disney can sometimes be lukewarm, but this is clearly not the case with "The Lion King".

The trailer for the future "live action" feature – which is actually a photoreal animation – recorded 224.6 million views worldwide in its first 24 hours, becoming the trailer most watched by Disney in a day. This is the second most watched teaser in all studios, behind that of "Avengers: Infinity War", which has collected 238 million views.

The trailer was released Thursday by Disney as part of the Thanksgiving football festivities, which replicates the opening scene of the 1994, well-loved, original animation film.

"All that light touches is our realm," says Mufusa (James Earl Jones, resuming his role of the original) in a voice-over, as the camera flew over the African desert.

In addition to Jones, the cast of stars includes Donald Glover in Simba, Beyonce in Nala, Chiwetel Ejiofor in Scar, Alfre Woodard in Simba Sarabi's mother, John Oliver in Zazu, John Kani in Rafiki, Florence Kasumba in Shenzi and Eric André in Azizi and Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen in the role of Timon and Pumbaa. JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph will play respectively young Simba and young Nala.

Jon Favreau, who also directed the live-action / CGI hybrid version of Disney's "The Jungle Book" in 2016, is currently leading. This is the last live remake of the studio, which was successful with "Beauty and the Beast" last year and will also release new versions of "Dumbo", "Aladdin", "Lady and the Tramp" and "Mulan" in the years to come.

The first installment of this highly anticipated remake was shown last summer to D23 fans. CinemaCon attendees also had a preview of the opening sequence earlier this year.

"The Lion King" is scheduled to be released on July 19, 2019.

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