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

9. Adult Nala (Zoe Saldana)

star trek beyond zoe saldana
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 over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!