Last summer, Disney announced The Lion Guard, a television series sequel to The Lion King that will air on Disney Junior, following Simba's son Kion. Today we get our first good look at the show and its lead character, best described as Simba with a fauxhawk — we'll circle back to this in a moment. The series, which will begin airing in January, will be preceded by a television movie, The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar, on the Disney Channel in November.
Kion's haricut may look and sound ridiculous, but I believe *pushes glasses up nose* that it's canonically correct. You see, in the midpoint song of the original The Lion King, "Hakuna Matata," we see Simba transform from a cub to a teenage lion to an adult lion. In those middle years, Simba sports a recognizable haircut.
Yes, that is a fauxhawk.
The real question here isn't, "Should Kion have a fauxhawk?" The real question is, "Who wore it best?"
The Lion Guard is part of an extended The Lion King universe. The original film was followed by a direct-to-video prequel, a direct-to-video sequel (which followed Simba's daughter), and a television series that focused on supporting characters Timon and Pumbaa. It also inspired a video game for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. The Sega Genesis version was the better of the two, and no one rationally believes otherwise. The same can be said about Aladdin video games.
Attendees at this weekend's D23 will have the opportunity to watch an extended preview of the program.
I'm opening the comments section so people can debate the merits of Simba and Kion's hair, and not because I think anyone has anything to say about 16-bit video games with Disney licenses.