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

2. Scar (Mads Mikkelsen)

Mads Mikkelsen Scar
Disney

Scar is one of cinema's most iconic villains, and that's largely down to Jeremy Irons and his performance in the 1994 original.

The way the character chose his words with laser-focused precision and used different vocal tones to manipulate different people - like his condescending attitude toward Simba and his pandering 'yes sire' approach with Mufasa - made him an incredibly memorable antagonist.

And Mads Mikkelsen, who's got a similarly droll set of pipes, knows how to create a memorable villain. He's given us arguably the best Bond villain in decades with Le Chiffre, and his turn as Hannibal in the NBC series won him multiple Saturn awards and bags of critical acclaim. Hannibal was the epitome of the likeable villain, and that's one of the biggest qualities that makes Scar so appealing; we know he's completely evil, yet we just can't help enjoy watching him operate.

Chances Of It Happening

Disney absolutely adores Mads Mikkelsen lately, handing him not one, but two roles in two of their biggest movies of the year; Rogue One and Doctor Strange. This, combined with his instantly recognisable voice and ability to skillfully play villains, makes him about as close to a lock as it can get.

Contributor
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!