Blue Ivy Carter's Mufasa Role Has A Special Lion King Easter Egg

Spoilers for Mufasa: The Lion King ahead. Lions, assemble: Beyoncé is back as Nala in the sequel to Disney’s 2019 live-action adaptation of The Lion King, and this time, she brought a special guest with her. The singer’s 12-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, makes her feature film debut in Mufasa: The Lion King as Kiara, Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala’s daughter.

Although Mufasa is a sequel set in the present, it also functions as a prequel. In the new film, Rafiki (John Kani) tells Kiara the origin story of how her late grandfather Mufasa became the Lion King, as Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) attempt to babysit her.

While Blue Ivy’s character will be new to most audiences, her role is actually a huge Easter egg to one of the original animated Lion King films. Read on for everything to know about Blue Ivy and her mom’s Mufasa roles.

Blue Ivy’s Mufasa Role

While Kiara isn’t the story’s protagonist, the film switches back and forth between Mufasa’s upbringing and the present day, meaning that Blue Ivy gets her chance to shine in her first major acting role. (If only the Oscars had a voice acting category.)

Additionally, Blue Ivy’s character is part of long-running Lion King canon. Kiara is also the name of Simba and Nala’s newborn daughter in the original animated sequel, The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, which was only released direct-to-DVD in 1998 and has been long forgotten by many Disney fans.

However, that detail is as far as Mufasa goes in acknowledging Simba’s Pride, as it tells an entirely different story about Kiara’s coming-of-age that mirrors her father’s journey in some ways. Perhaps that will be the plot of a third movie if 2019’s The Lion King gets yet another sequel.

Beyoncé’s Mufasa Role

Beyoncé lets her daughter take center stage in the sequel. Compared to Blue Ivy’s role, Bey’s return as Nala is more like a cameo, given that she has approximately three lines in the entire film. But this is for good reason.

At the start of the film, Simba asks Timon and Pumbaa to watch Kiara during a forecasted storm as he meets up with Nala, who is waiting for him at a secluded rock formation. It ends with Simba and Nala announcing that they just welcomed a newborn son, whose name is left unknown because Kiara starts telling him the story of Mufasa before her parents can reveal it.