I'll go in chronological order of the preview and discuss the Simba's Pride elements.
First we get more pictures of The Outlands and their hyena residents.It looks like Janja has his own vulture Majordomo.
In fear of the new Lion Guard, they try to kill as many animals as possible.
However, Kiara stumbles upon them.
Then here's another shot of the hyenas in The Outlands.
Then it turns out, poor Kiara gets stuck in the gazelle stampede. Simba calls her name
and she yelps out, "Help!" Simba might be reliving the stampede he was in as a cub in his mind at this point too.
Then finally, an epic fight scene between the guard and the hyenas.
Simba's Pride news is excited for the premiere of The Lion Guard, and will keep you updated on any news regarding Kiara or The Outlands. (Although, I'm also excited to meet the new characters and experience the story as well.)
Disney has made this time line outlining the time line of The Lion King franchise. Naturally Simba's Pride has it's own little section. Interestingly they use the 2004 special edition cover to represent it:
Source: Amazon.com
Also let's not forget the other Lion King projects that Kiara has had cameos in. Since she's officially the cub at the end of The Lion King, she has a cameo in almost all retellings of The Lion King.
Here we have Simba and Nala excitedly watching from the distance as Rafiki holds up their daughter, Kiara.
The Lion King on Broadway
Here's the time Kiara was her dad. Well...Kinda. They use the same puppet for baby Simba and Kiara. This puppet can be moved by the Rafiki actress so it looks like the cub is wiggling.
She may not be a baby in this, but this one is special. This marks her official return to The Lion King. Disney still considers the cub at the end to be Kiara, and in Lion King storybooks refer to her as "princess" and "daughter", but they rarely use her name anymore. However, The Lion Guard could change the tides.
The Lion Guard has an official site up now, and has some new pictures. Three are of interest for this blog, although all of them are good.
We got two of Kiara and one of the hyenas in The Outlands.
This one is captioned: "Janja and the hyenas of the Outlands"
We get our first look at the head hancho hyena himself, who was previous only mentioned in the extended clip: "Fun's over! Janja needs his lunch!" His surrounding hyenas seem worried about something, perhaps Janja is planning a horrible scheme to stop The Lion Guard.
This one is captioned: "Kiara and Simba looking at the sunrise on top of Pride Rock."
This mirrors the scene in The Lion King where Mufasa took Simba to the tip of Pride Rock. I can just imagine Simba saying, "Kiara, everything the light touches is our kingdom!" Even though it's their kingdom, Simba sure did limit Kiara's exploration of said kingdom in Simba's Pride. This is a lovely image that perfectly shows the bond Kiara and Simba share.
This one is captioned: ""Tifu, Kiara, Nala, Simba and Rafiki"
In this image we get our first look at Kion's friend Tifu, who is sitting next to Kiara. Maybe Kiara finally got a Pride Land friend. When watching Simba's Pride she seemed so lonely, and Kovu was the only cub her own age she had to play with, but of course wasn't allowed to. They all seem observant and worried, Maybe the hyenas are attacking the Pride Lands and Kion's heading off to stop them.
The other screenshots are worth looking at too, as they show The Guard, Kion, and even Mufasa!
Disney has a released a new trailer that confirms November 22nd as the release of The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar. Not only that, but we get some footage of Kiara on Pride rock with her dad!
In the words of Scar, "Now this looks familiar...Oh yes, I remember." :
Source: LionKing.org
It does seem Kiara is taking her role as queen more seriously. She's going to star in a book called "Can't Wait to be Queen." While in Simba's Pride she uttered, "What if I don't wanna be queen!? It's no fun..."
Well, I just can't wait to see her in The Lion Guard!
In a past entry I mentioned the book Follow That Hippo! This book makes direct mention of the hyenas, meaning The Outlands are most likely involved too.
In that post there was no cover image available, but now there is:
Source: Lion Guard Wikia
The cover doesn't tell us much, as it's just a group shot of The Lion Guard.
However the other book covers give us a sense of the story:
Source: Lion Guard Wikia
Source: Lion Guard Wikia
It's also possible that the cover is not final and subject to change like Bunga the Wise. It wouldn't matter much if it did or not, as it's an eye catching cover, and will make kids want to buy it when they see their Lion Guard pals on it.
This is a confusing subject. At first it was commonly thought The Lion Guard took place post- Simba's Pride which would make Kiara an adult. The future queen part of the description wasn't suspicious in terms to her age, as it's possible she'd only become queen when Simba and Nala die.
Another reason it might have been assumed she's an adult is due to her voice actress Eden Riegel, who sounds like an adult Kiara:
However the book "Can't Wait to Be Queen" kind of shot down the idea of her being an adult. Starting with a temporary cover:
But then there's this Tweet by Khary Payton who will voice Rafiki answered a fan question by saying it takes place after Lion King 2. Given that Kiara is an adult at the end of the film, this is puzzling.
We'll have to wait until November to know for sure.
One of the most entertaining stories flying around the internet recently is a rejected ending to The Lion King on Broadway which would have ended it differently than the film did, way differently.
Apparently instead of heading back to Pride Rock to challenge Scar, Simba would come across....Vegas. Vegas in the case of the show being an oasis made by the new villain Papa Croc, who, allied with Scar, buried all the water.
Simba attaches himself to the villain due the void left after the death of Mufasa. However Papa Croc does not seem to share the same sentient for the lion and makes him fight other animals instead.
This was not approved by Disney, and the ending became similar to the film's ending: All the animals of the Pride gather in joy and celebrate the birth of Simba and Nala's new cub Kiara.
Wait a minute...Kiara....
She's a very important character in the Lion King's story! More specifically Lion King 2. This means if the Broadway show ended that way a huge chunk of The Lion King story would be missing...Right?
Well actually it depends on when Kiara was conceived.
If she was conceived sometime after Simba returned, Simba's Pride wouldn't happen, unless Nala fell in love with a different male and had Kiara with him. In that case a Simba's Pride-like story could happen if Kovu fell in love with her and chose her as his queen. Scar most likely wouldn't approve of his heir falling in love with the daughter a lioness who openly defies the king.
Maybe Nala could teach her We are One, and Kiara and Kovu could use it to make a compromise between the lionesses and hyenas. Akin to what The Outsiders did in Simba's Pride, maybe the hyenas would side with them peacefully, with only Scar (and possibly Zira) not agreeing to it. The villain death might even be the same as well, with Kiara intercepting Scar, who meets his demise by not grabbing her paw. Maybe in a dark twist Zira would jump after him. Her original death in Simba's Pride was darker than that.
Since this blog is eagerly awaiting The Lion Guard, we'll discuss Kion. Depending on how The Lion Guard itself will change things, Kion would be born either in the middle of this re imagined Lion King 2, or at the tail end of it. If it was at the end, a new enemy would need to be introduced since hyenas wouldn't be a threat. Unless some were still loyal to Scar and exiled like The Outsiders were.
The second possibility is taking a fan theory into account. There's a semi popular fan theory that speculates Kiara was conceived during Can you Feel the Love Tonight, which followed Simba and Nala's reunion.
This takes two things into account. First being how long it took The Pride Lands to recover from the drought. During Scar's region there was either little rain or none at all. When Simba returned the rain did as well. It would still take a while for the plant life and herds to return though.
A lioness's pregnancy is about three months. It might be far fetched, but maybe the plant life could have returned by this point. Unless due to how human-like the lions are, perhaps they have nine month pregnancies, which would allow the plants more time to grow.
Source: Pinterest
It's assumed that Kiara was born the same day she was presented.
Source: Mylionking.com
This theory also keeps Kovu's age in account. Zira claims he was hand chosen by Scar as heir, and that he was the last born before The Outsider's exile.
However this is puzzling as Kovu and Kiara look around the same age. So if he was a newborn when Simba returned and Kiara was indeed conceived during Can you Feel the Love tonight, maybe they'd look pretty close in age, even with a three month gap. That depends again on whether they age like humans or actual lions. Also the fact Kovu may be malnourished due to living in the Outlands could be a factor as well.
In this case The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride could not occur as it is in the film, however it could still be a Romeo and Juliet love story. Like Simba hated Kovu for being Scar's heir, Scar would hate Kiara for being Simba's daughter. While Nala probably wouldn't train Kiara to kill Scar, Kiara might naturally fall in love with Kovu. Maybe he'd love her back, which would cause tension between The lionesses loyal to Scar and the non loyal lionesses. We Are One could be used to bring peace between the two groups of lions who are most likely bitter enemies. Again, Scar could face a demise similar to Zira's. In the case of the hyenas either they are banished or they became peaceful too.
(Source: Lion King Wikia)
So there is a possibility if this actually happened that Kiara could exist. Simba's Pride was in production when the show premiered, so I bet some people excitedly imagined what the little cub's future would bring. Although it would be humorous if that Papa Croc thing happened.
