The Lion King may be one of those iconic films that is instantly identifiable by its music and its score. The 1994 Disney classic ultimately earned Hans Zimmer his first Academy Award, but it has endured to the point that it’s no longer just a movie score. It’s been transplanted onto the stage, into concerts, live-action, you name it, for more than 30 years. Yet the most remarkable thing about it might be that Zimmer never even wanted to score The Lion King in the first place.

Speaking exclusively with Collider, the composer revealed that he wasn’t particularly interested in making a “cartoon,” but agreed because his six-year-old daughter could finally attend one of his premieres. Then he reached Mufasa’s death, and the project became considerably more personal. Zimmer explained:
“Lion King is an odd one for me because I didn’t want to do a cartoon, but my daughter was six years old at the time, and I’d never been able to take her to a premiere, so I thought, ‘I’ll say yes to this thing.’ The other thing I remember saying to them is, ‘I hate Broadway musicals,’ and they said, ‘We guarantee you it will never become a musical.’ You know, how wrong could we be? Liars! Right?”
However, Zimmer got serious for a moment because he believes there is a deeper-rooted reason why the music ultimately became so powerful to so many. His own father died when Zimmer was just six years old, and the shocking and traumatic death of Mufasa forced him into confronting buried feelings he hadn’t dealt with since he was a child. “But the other thing was, I thought, ‘It’s just a silly cartoon.’ I started writing, and then I got to the scene where the father dies,” Zimmer explained. “My dad died when I was six years old, and I realized I’d never really dealt with it. So I had no choice. I suddenly had to go back and deal with something that I had hidden away inside myself. I think that’s partly why the music is quite powerful. The Lion King is a great movie. We have death and fart jokes. What more can you ask for?” Ultimately, what Zimmer thought would be a silly cartoon ended up being one of the most iconic film scores of all time, and one of the defining scores of his career. And yes, the stage adaptation he had been assured would never happen became one of the most successful Broadway productions ever created.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.

The Matrix
Mad Max
Blade Runner
Dune
Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it.
BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don’t keep you alive.
CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who’s pulling the strings.
DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it.
EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can’t fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely?
What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don’t need resources — you can generate them.
BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it.
CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity.
DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on.
EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night?
Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant.
BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left.
CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you’re a problem, you’re already out of time.
DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn’t even know I was playing.
EThe Empire tightening its grip until there’s nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust?
Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it.
BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better.
CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy.
DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can’t beat a system you refuse to understand.
EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term?
Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters.
BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest.
CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions.
DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand.
EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire’s attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart?
The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who’ve seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose.
BOne or two people I’d trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks.
CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice.
DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last.
EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all?
Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.

AI won’t harm the innocent — even the ones who’d report me without hesitation.
BI do what I have to to protect the people I’ve chosen. Everything else is negotiable.
CThe line shifts depending on who’s asking and what’s at stake.
DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people’s future, even if it’d help now.
ESome lines, once crossed, can’t be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

08
What would actually make survival worth it?
Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it.
BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving.
CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out.
DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations.
EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else’s boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated
You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.

The Wasteland

Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.

Arrakis

Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

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‘The Lion King’ Lives on 30 Years Later

More than three decades on, The Lion King will remain key to Zimmer’s live performances. During our conversation, Zimmer also singled out Lebo M, whose unmistakable and stirring vocals are the first things we hear when the sun rises over the Serengeti, as key to the success. Lebo M will appear alongside 19 musicians when Zimmer returns to the stage. Zimmer and that ensemble will bring Hans Zimmer Live – The Next Level to North America beginning February 17, 2027, following the production’s hugely successful European run. And if you need a selling point? Of Lebo M, Zimmer simply says: “He is the Lion King.”

Hans Zimmer Live – The Next Level begins its North American run on February 17, 2027. Tickets go on general sale September 25 at 10 a.m. local time. Stay tuned at Collider for more.

Release Date

July 19, 2019

Runtime

118 minutes