It’s one of the most heart-wrenching scenes ever, bringing tears to your eyes no matter how many times you watch it.

Scar, the jealous brother, digs his claws into the paws of Mufasa, who hangs off the edge of the cliff begging for his life. Before you know it, Scar pushes him off and we watch as Mufasa falls to his death amidst stampeding wildebeest.

Tears abound as Simba looks on, lost.

Let’s take a look:

Well, even though Mufasa screams “Brother” in an attempt to be saved, according to The Lion King producer Don Hahn, two aren’t “real” brothers.

A little gobsmacked? Don’t worry, the whole 2oceansvibe office is as well.

You might be wondering how this is as Scar was Simba’s uncle, right?

Indeed – over to Screen Rant:

The Lion King never gave viewers any reason to discount the stated familial ties between the characters in the film, and thus Scar’s status as brother to Mufasa and uncle to Simba has always been taken at face value

Changing those roles definitely has the potential to alter one’s takeaways from the story, but that’s exactly what Hahn says is the case.

Hahn revealed that he and the rest of the crew always thought it “very likely” that Mufasa and Scar weren’t brothers by blood relation. He then provided a full explanation, partially based on real-life dynamics among lion prides:

“[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.

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 [since they don’t have the same parents]. One lion will always kind of be off in the shadows.

We were trying to use those animal truths to underpin the story so we sort of figured Scar and Mufasa couldn’t really be from the same gene pool.”

As a South African who shares a country with lions, you should appreciate the researched effort in that explanation.

But Hahn wasn’t done.

He went on to explain that the two male lions’ relationship was in fact referenced during the film, touched on in the scene where “Mufasa and Scar argue about the line of succession to the throne”:

Mufasa asks if Scar is challenging his power, and Scar replies with a comment about being “at the shallow end of the gene pool“.

According to Hahn, this line is a direct allusion to the two lions coming from separate blood lines.

Got it? Do you think that it would have made you feel differently about the film?

I’m still tearing up.

[source:screenrant]