Movies | Pop Culture | 90s
We've Been All Wrong About Mufasa And Scar's Relationship This Entire Time
A lot of the most common questions surrounding The Lion King are based on the relationship between Mufasa and Scar. Sure, the movie is obviously not real, but people seem to always have a problem with the fact that there are two male lions in the pride.
The Lion King is one of the most popular Disney movies ever made. It doesn't matter if you are an adult or a kid, you will likely enjoy this movie. But for some reason, we have been missing the clues about the true nature of their relationship this whole time. The director and producer of the movie decided that it was time to clarify the mix up after 23 years of us getting it all wrong.
There are a few scenes that always led us to believe we knew what was the deal with Scar and Mufasa:
When Mufasa yells "Scar! Brother, help me!"
When Zazu gets angry at Scar and said "as the King's brother you should've been first in line"
When Scar says "Why! If it isn't my big brother descending from on high to mingle with the commoners"
When Scar says "I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool"
When Simba asks what Scar will be after Simba becomes king and he says "a monkey's uncle"
All signs point to Scar being Mufasa's brother right? If he is Simba's uncle, and called his brother on several occasions?
Nope! The director and producer let us know that we have been wrong all along.
Even though Mufasa refers to himself as Scar's brother, it turns out he didn't mean his biological brother. He means it more like a figurative brother.
Rob Minkoff and Don Hahn who were the director and producer of The Lion King respectively confirmed to HelloGiggles that they are not genetically related at all.
Hahn explained, “[While making the movie] we talked about the fact that it was very likely [Scar and Mufasa] would not have both the same parents. The way lions operate in the wild…when the male lion gets old, another rogue lion comes and kills the head of the pride. What that does is it causes the female lions to go into heat [to reproduce], and then the new younger lion kills the king and then he kills all the babies. Now he’s the new lion that’s running the pride.”
He continued, "There was always this thing about well, how do you have these two [male] lions? Occasionally there are prides that do have two male lions, in an interesting dynamic because they’re not equals. One lion will always kind of be off in the shadows."
They took those metaphorical shadows and made it more literal for Scar, having him live in a shadowy cave. They even meant for the "gene pool" reference to explain it.
"We sort of figured Scar and Mufasa couldn’t really be from the same gene pool," Hahn says, "In fact, that’s what [Scar] says. There’s a line, he goes, ‘I’m from the shallow end of the gene pool.’ When he’s talking to Mufasa, when Mufasa gets mad at him for not coming up to the coronation of Simba."
This helps explain part of the resentment that Scar had towards Mufasa. It's a biological desire to want to be king. I don't know that this really forgives him for throwing Mufasa over a cliff, but at least it wasn't his biological brother? We obviously all know how this ends, but crazy to think that we've been wrong all along!