Barry Jenkins defends himself over criticism for helming the Disney prequel Mufasa: The Lion King.
After the trailer for The Lion King prequel dropped, followers of the Moonlight director took photographs at him over his involvement with the movie.
One social media consumer on X, the social media platform previously often called Twitter, mentioned Jenkins was “too good and talented for this Iger’s soulless machine.”
“There is nothing soulless about The Lion King,” Jenkins replied. “For decades children have sat in theaters all over the world experiencing collective grief for the first time, engaging Shakespeare for the first time, across aisles in myriad languages. A most potent vessel for communal empathy.”
Another consumer criticized Jenkins for his response, claiming the filmmaker wouldn’t have replied like that when he premiered Moonlight at TIFF.
“Bruh what kind of logic is that?” Jenkins replied. “How about this, here are a few videos from the ‘same Barry Jenkins who premiered Moonlight‘ (as you put it) showing some of the things I was doing in my spare time AT THE SAME TIME I was writing Moonlight.”
Jenkins offered the number of work he has carried out over time, including in a final message, “Children have figured prominently in every single one of the projects from Moonlight til’ now without exception. Like… BRUH. You can say whatever you want about the film but telling ME that something I SAID about why something is meaningful to me for children is CAP? Nah bruh.”
Mufasa: The Lion King sees Rafiki inform the story of Mufasa to his granddaughter Kiara, voiced by Blue Ivy Carter. Aaron Pierre voices the titular character with Kelvin Harrison Jr., Mads Mikkelsen, and Thandiwe Newton, who’re additionally a part of the voice solid. Beyoncé is returning to reprise her position of Nala, together with Donald Glover (Simba), Seth Rogen (Timon) and Billy Eichner (Pumbaa). The movie is being launched on December 20.