Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen have reportedly entered final negotiations to play Timon and Pumbaa!
The world’s most famous warthog and meerkat duo are headed back to the big screen in 2019. Walt Disney Pictures today confirmed that Jon Favreau’s live-action The Lion King movie will hit the big screen July 19, 2019. Now, TheWrap is reporting that Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen have entered final negotiations to play Timon and Pumbaa, respectively! They join a cast that already includes Donald Glover as Simba and James Earl Jones reprising his animated role as Mufasa. Although still unconfirmed, Favreau has stated that Beyonce is his top choice to voice Nala.
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Echoing the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern roles from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Timon and Pumbaa serve as Simba’s close friends. In the original animated feature, Timon and Pumbaa were voiced by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella. Both stars returned for a Timon and Pumbaa animated series in the late ’90s (although Lane was later replaced by Kevin Schon and then Quinton Flynn). The pair also received their own direct-to-home video animated feature The Lion King 1 1/2, inspired by Tom Stoppard’s famous Hamlet side-quel Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
Eichner and Rogen recently starred together in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Neither are strangers to voicing animated characters. Eichner voices the recurring Mr. Ambrose on FOX‘s Bob’s Burgers and starred as Chef Pig in last year’s The Angry Birds Movie. Rogen, meanwhile, lent his voice to last year’s animated features Sausage Party and Kung Fu Panda 3.
What do you think of Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Pumbaa? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and check back for further casting updates as they become available.
(Photos by Chance Yeh / Getty Images / Mike Windle / Getty Images for truTV)
