‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ stars Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner ‘improvised almost every single thing’ their characters say

Hakuna Matata? More like “Hakuna Mufasa.”

Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner reprise their fan-favorite roles as they voice Pumbaa and Timon in Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, and the pair were very excited that their improvised line turned into a small song in the film. (No thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda, though, who wrote tracks for the prequel.)

“We were pretty pleased with ourselves for coming up with [‘Hakuna Mufasa’],” Rogen told Yahoo Entertainment. “And I remember distinctly like — it’s one of those things where we spend like 25 minutes doing it and the whole time we’re looking at each other just like, we’re wasting everyone’s time right now … there’s no way this is gonna be in the movie. They’re being nice to us and letting us make each other laugh.”

Rogen continued, “When Lin wins an Oscar for it …”

“He better not submit ‘Hakuna Mufasa’ for Best Original Song,” Eichner chimed in.

“We wrote that,” Rogen agreed, who joked he and Eichner have “outward resentment” toward Miranda for not writing them any songs in Mufasa.

In the new film, in theaters Dec. 20, Rafiki tells Mufasa’s granddaughter Kiara the unlikely story of how the lion became king of the Pride Lands. Kiara, voiced by Blue Ivy Carter, is the daughter of Simba and Nala. Of course, Rafiki needs a little help from best friends Timon and Pumbaa to give some comedic relief to the narration.

Rogen and Eichner give credit to Jon Favreau, who directed the 2019 live-action film The Lion King, for encouraging them to “record together all the time.”

“[It’s] very rare in these animated films. I’ve done dozens of them over the years and, and you are literally never in the room with the person you’re [talking] with,” Rogen explained. “It really, I think, is what created this dynamic that the two characters have and the joke style and the rhythm. I think all that was born out of us actually being able to interact with one another. And for this one, it was the same. We never recorded without one another and we improvised almost every single thing we say in the entire movie.”

Rogen concluded, “We play well off of each other and like each other and get one another’s sensibilities.”

Mufasa: The Lion King is in theaters on Dec. 20.

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