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

3. Adult Simba (Oscar Isaac)

Star Wars The Force Awakens Poe Dameron Oscar Isaac
Lucasfilm

Oscar Isaac is making quite a name for himself as of late - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, X-Men: Apocalypse and Ex-Machina is a pretty good couple of years even for the biggest of stars.

And as an added bonus, all three of those roles have displayed traits that a portrayal of adult Simba would need; his playful, spirited turn in Episode VII and his darker performances in X-Men and Ex-Machina directly mirror Simba's lighter 'Hakuna Matata' phase and his grittier scenes with Scar toward the end of the movie.

Even Isaac, as a person, seems like he'd be a good fit in this regard. His eyes possess a fun-loving twinkle, yet he often comes across as stoic and deadly serious. That's Simba, personified; one minute he's fooling around with Timon and Pumbaa, and the next you actually get the feeling he may decide to kill Scar and he's incredibly firm and decisive when he forces his uncle into exile.

Chances Of It Happening

Studios love up-and-coming stars who generate a lot of buzz whenever they're cast, and Oscar Isaac fits that bill perfectly - nobody ever complains when they see this guy land a role, and that goodwill is something that a remake of an animated classic desperately needs.

His lead role in the Star Wars franchise has ensured he's well within the Disney family, too - it's almost certainly a question of 'when' he gets cast in another one of their movies, not 'if'.

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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!