Disney's The Lion King Remake: Casting All 10 Major Roles

9. Adult Nala (Zoe Saldana)

The Lion King Liam Neeson
Paramount

Saldana's become known for her strong, often icy tough-girl persona - just see Neytiri in Avatar or Uhura in the recent Star Trek trilogy. But she also shows plenty of heart and emotion in those movies when she needs to, which makes her a perfect fit for Adult Nala - a character that must prove confident enough to stand up to Simba and call him out on his foolish reluctance to return to Pride Rock, but must also come across as warm and playful when the two characters share a moment.

Her prominent role in Avatar also means that she's comfortable working on a fully-CGI movie, and that this won't hinder her ability to perform. The only question is whether she'll want to do a movie like that - again - considering she has numerous Avatar sequels on her schedule.

Chances Of It Happening

Ultimately, it's those aforementioned sequels that will extinguish any hope of Saldana joining The Lion King. Not only does the actress have press for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2. next May, she may have a role in Avengers: Infinity War and has at least three Avatar movies to shoot back-to-back. She's just too busy!

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.