Yahoo Movies Why Beyoncé's daughter was cast in Lion King prequel
Mufasa: The Lion King cast Beyoncé's daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, in a starring role and now director Barry Jenkins has explained why.
The prequel serves as an origin story for Mufasa (Aaron Pierre), with the structure seeing his tale told via Rafiki's (John Kani) conversation with Kiara (Carter), the daughter of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé).
Following the release of the film's first trailer, Jenkins spoke with Empire Magazine about the upcoming Disney film and revealed exactly why he decided to have Carter star alongside her real-life mother.
"She did an absolutely amazing job," the director said. "She just felt like this really curious young person. Watching [Beyoncé] coexist with her daughter, and just how lovely, gentle and encouraging she is was really special.
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"I think it bled into the performances they gave as well. I think this will be this really beautiful time capsule for the two of them, at this moment when they get to share this part of their relationship as these characters."
Jenkins also spoke more broadly about the film, with the filmmaker discussing his collaboration with songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda for the musical numbers.
"We wanted to really find a balance of symbiosis between the music and the film. Lin really leaned in and tried to find the places that myself and Jeff Nathanson, the writer of the script, had tried to go deeper into the background of some of these characters in this film.
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"He did a really, really wonderful job, and he and I already had something of a rapport."
"It's a 'journey' film," Jenkins added of the core message. "We're used to all these characters living together in this one place, and I think part of [the film's] objective is to really show where all these people came from and how they ended up together."
Mufasa: The Lion King is released on December 20.
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