“Hakuna Matata” may not appear on the soundtrack, but Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner embodied the song’s lighthearted spirit when they reprized their roles as comical friends Pumbaa and Timon in “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

When recording the voices for the photorealistic remake of “The Lion King” in 2019, Rogen said they felt pressure to put their own spin on the characters while also evoking the beloved performances in Disney’s original 1994 film.

“There are certain things that just had to get across, and certain lines and jokes that were from the original that had to be incorporated somehow or else the fans would get angry at us,” said Vancouver-born Rogen, the Pumbaa speaks.

“So because there are no real expectations about what will or won’t happen, we were able to have a little more fun with this case.”

In the new prequel, which will be released in cinemas on December 20th, the shaman Rafiki tells his granddaughter Kiara, the daughter of the “Lion King” hero Simba, the childhood and youth of the late King Mufasa.

The story is frequently interrupted by interjections from Rogen’s flatulent warthog Pumbaa and Eichner’s self-aggrandizing meerkat Timon, which the duo say were largely improvised.

Eichner joked that it was about the “method” for the role.

“I lived as a meerkat. I’m just wondering, ‘What would Jeremy Strong do?’ and that’s exactly what I do,” he said, referring to the overly serious “Succession” star who is known for throwing himself wholeheartedly into his roles. “And I don’t care what Brian Cox has to say!”

“WWJSD,” Rogen added.

Directed by Barry Jenkins, the film serves as an origin story not only for Simba’s father, but also for his villainous uncle Scar and his mother Sarabi.

The film is rendered in the same computer-generated style as its 2019 predecessor and contains some of the same difficult themes. Like Simba after him, Mufasa is forced to separate from his parents and has to start his own family.

Many of the actors are new to the characters, including Aaron Pierre as Mufasa, previously voiced by the late James Earl Jones; Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Scar; Tiffany Boone as Sarabi and 12-year-old Blue Ivy Carter as Kiara.

Rogen said he and Eichner had the benefit of being able to build on their performances in the 2019 film.

“We spent a lot of time on the first one establishing the dynamics and the characters,” Rogen said in a recent video call with Eichner from Los Angeles.

“We had that in advance. So we’re kind of further along in the process.”

Rogen and Eichner’s characters themselves indicate that they are not crucial to the story in this film – a statement that Rogen and Eichner made when recording their roles together.

“We improvise almost everything we say in this film. And so a lot of the comedy came from the things we said and the things we created with Barry in the moment,” he said.

“When we saw that we were kind of a framework element, our first reaction was: That means we don’t get any songs. We don’t influence the plot as much as we would like. Maybe we want to be more central.”

While composer Lin-Manuel Miranda didn’t write anything new for Timon and Pumbaa, Eichner said they were able to “create a musical moment” – a short improvised reinterpretation of the song the characters are most famous for, “Hakuna Matata.”

Still, Timon and Pumbaa’s position on the sidelines gave the actors more opportunity to improvise, Eichner said.

“It’s so much fun playing together. In a way, from a comedic perspective, it’s always a lot more fun to be outside the story than to be the center of it,” he said.

And, Rogen said, their fun seems to have paid off.

“I was amazed at how much made the final cut,” he said. “My overwhelming feeling watching the film was, wow, they’ve really found a way to get a lot of usable material out of it, which I didn’t expect.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2024.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press