The Lion King's makers have released new stills from the film! And they are super cool. Some of the stills actually take you back to the original film. They've brought together a young Simba following Mufasa. In another snap, Rafiki is shown while the other two pictures show Scar with his jackals and Simba with Timon and Pumba.

Speaking about the classic and remaking it, director Jon Favreau told Entertainment Weekly, “It feels like we’re restoring a classic historic architectural landmark — how do you update it without changing the personality of it? How do you take advantage of all the new technological breakthroughs but still maintain the soul and the spirit of the original Lion King?”

The Lion King new stills

He further added, “I think this film is a culmination of all the live-action adaptations that Disney has done of their animated classics. The idea of taking these characters and this music, just as the stage play took it, sticking closely to the story but reinventing it for a different medium… I thought that this technology would be separate enough from the animated film that it felt fresh and new, yet completely related to the original. And by the time Jungle Book was done, we had a lot of facility with this technology, so you’re hitting that part of your stride where you’re saying, ‘Now, what can I really do with this?’”

Jon Favreau who managed to breath life into animals previously in 2016's The Jungle Book, Favreau said, “The whole reason for all of this is to make an animated film feel live-action — to have a real crew come in, interface with an animated film, and make all the camera decisions that you would on set, instead of somebody sitting at a keyboard programming in the camera moves. If you look at the way we’re covering and cutting [the animated performances], all of that is related to traditional cinema.”

The film stars Donald Glover, Eric Andre, James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Beyonce, Billy Eichner, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen and John Oliver to name a few. It is set to release on 19th July this year. From the looks of the trailer and the fact that it is a classic, people are super excited about the film!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2019 10:06 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).