On Thursday 22nd November (Thanksgiving in the US) Disney released the first teaser trailer for their live-action remake of the single greatest film of our generation – The Lion King. For ten years, Disney’s anthropomorphic Hamlet, set to the insurmountable music of Tim Rice and Elton John, sat atop the list of highest grossing animated films, and for good reason (for an eloquent and comedic explanation of this, I point you to Jack Whitehall).

Much like the first teaser for 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, and for 2016’s The Jungle Book, the teaser does little to show how the film is original. The formula Disney seem to be applying is that the first teaser should showcase the impressive CGI whilst striking the right nostalgic notes. This is what excites fans of the original film to give the remake a shot.

Where this teaser diverges from the prior two, it does not include any audio of the new, highly impressive cast of voice actors. Unlike Beauty and the Beast, whose teasers made much ado about Emma Watson, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, and Emma Thompson, this clip features only music from the iconic opening – ‘The Circle of Life’ – and a voiceover from the one actor from the 1994 original to reprise their role this time round: James Earl Jones as Mufasa.

The clip does name, in quick succession, the star-studded cast of this film, and I for one could not be more excited. There could be no more perfect casting of Zazu than John Oliver, equally Keegan-Michael Key and Chiwetel Ejiofor bring a humour and intensity to the cast that is the exact mould of the film. Anyone who knows me, however, will know that I am absolutely most excited for Donald Glover’s Simba, and of course the insurmountable queen of music, pop-culture, and University scholarships – Beyoncé as the OG badass female character, Nala.

The Lion King comes to Cinemas on 19th July 2019