Hello all! I am so excited to say that we finally have confirmation on The Lion King coming to Disney Magic Kingdoms. That means that our kingdoms are about to get a whole lot wilder. Earlier in the month, a leak suggested that this might be the next update, and I can almost guarantee it’s going to be an event. After all, if I know these devs, they wouldn’t miss out on an epic fight on Pride Rock. Earlier today, a post was sent out on Twitter, all but confirming our suspicions.
With the reveal out of the way, as I always, I thought it’d be fun to look at who we might be getting in this update. So grab some grubs, pull up a hyena, and let’s take a look!
Characters
Simba
Much like Belle in the Beauty and the Beast event, this is a no brainer. Simba will surely be at the heart of whatever issue arises in the kingdom. While I would love to get young Simba in the mix, I strongly think we’ll be looking at the adult versions of the characters in this update. Simba will probably have to deal with Scar “coming back from the dead” like Gaston did. Or perhaps he’ll be on the run from Gaston who might be hunting him. You never know!
Nala
Strangely, if a character gets left out, I could see it being Nala. After all, she’s one of the last characters I think anyone thinks about when they consider the long list of excellent characters in this film. That being said, I just don’t think you could have a Lion King update without her. After all, who will talk Simba into actually doing something if she’s not their? Behind every great man is a woman who’s sick of the man being a lazy butt.
Rafiki
Please let Rafiki be in this update. PLEASE! He’s such a fantastic character and having a baboon running around the kingdom would be simply amazing. I’m not sure why. It just would be. Will it be weird having these feral talking animals running around amidst the clothes wearing animals of Zootopia? Ohh, I’d love if they had a moment to discuss their differences. Ahem, but seriously, please let rafiki be there!
Scar
This is an obvious one. Scar will surely be the last character we Welcome as he will surely be the villain of the event. I’m sure he will be a zombie, like Gaston, who comes back from the dead to take over the Kingdom and rule Pride Rock, which will almost certainly be the centerpiece of this event. I fully expect him to make lots of disgusted faces during the event, like the one below.
Timon
I’ve said before that I would love to see a character that is actually two characters in one. I think Timon and Pumbaa make a great case for this. After all, one without the other just isn’t any fun. That being said, something tells me they will both be gem characters. One will be at the start of the event and the other later on. Keep in mind, this is all speculation. Also, I would like to see Timon do his “Big Pig” dance sometime during the event.
Pumbaa
Pumbaa, as I said before, would make a great case for a gem character. He’s not super integral to the story, but he’s super cute and is absolutely necessary for bad smelling pig jokes.
Zazu
If there’s a character that’s going to be left out, I think it’s Zazu. I’d love to see him though as we don’t really have any consistently flying characters. We have characters that fly for certain quests but none that fly to get around. Just mechanically I think it would be cool to see. I suppose it would work a bit like Zero. I’d also love Zazu there to make snarky comments throughout the quest line.
New Clickers
Hyenas
While I don’t think the Hyenas will be welcomable, I could see them being a clicker. Much like someone had talked about dalmatians running around, I think it would be fun to have to ride the kingdom of pesky Hyenas.
Grubs
Especially given the bug in the promo, I think we can absolutely assume that grubs will be a clicker of some kind here. After all, we already had spiders, grubs, are just the next step. They also come in all sorts of fun colors so it would be easy to make different levels of them throughout an event.
Attractions
Pride Rock
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what we’re going to get from an attraction standpoint, but I can say that Pride Rock seems the most obvious. Our characters need a place to “Make a Plan.” They need a place to hold up babies to the sun in glorious fashion. They need a place to fight over. Pride Rock is that place.
Elephant Graveyard
The addition of this one would make for a good place for Scar to hang out and plot his revenge against those pesky lions. I think it would also be the only other location super integral to the film other than the jungle. And it makes for a fun visual given that the elephant tusks will probably be a slide for the children of the park.
Final Thoughts
I’m pretty excited to get a new event as I’ve been very complacent in my playing of the game lately. I’d love for it to open up Adventureland, but at this point I’m not holding my breath. I think this would be a great chance to open up the last areas of Fantasyland and finally give us the space we’ve been pining for. What do you guys think? What are you excited for? Let me know in the comments!
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jaysenheadleywrites.com 
Yeah, I don’t think this will open Adventureland, but…. Frontierland? Do you recall last year when some people were able to tap on a tiny speck of land over there and get a pop up saying “Defeat the vicious Scar to unlock this area,” or something to that effect?
So, I’m wondering if this is actually part of the main storyline and not an “event” at all, in the sense that it might not be timed and exclusive to those playing right now. What do you think?
At some point i found a video that showed a prototype of the game. In that prototype Aladdin was in the adventure lamd area and It looked like Lion King was in Frontierland . This in my opinion makes no sense. If anything i guess it could be critter country but at this point we have plenty of characters in the game that dont fit into their appropriate lands.
They’ll prob have a lion king jungle cruise as a ride
I missed out on scar just wondering if the lion king event be back or will there be a way to get scar
I missed out on scar just wondering if the lion king event be back or will there be a way to get scar
I wish they would give Simba a way to change from cub to adult and back, like a costume change.
I also have some reservations about the attractions for The Lion King. While I like the characters, I’m not to sure what you can do with Pride Rock or the Bone Yard. We’ll find out soon enough.
Awesome!! Look forward to it!!❤️
IMHO, it will look pretty darned stupid having either Pride Rock or the Bone Yard located in any of the existing areas. I mean, come on…think about it! That sounds ludicrous to me! On the other hand, Pride Rock would make an excellent center attraction to a new Adventureland area. Just imagine a huge Pride Rock standing proud in the middle of a new land.
If Gameloft doesn’t open a new area with this update, and instead just gives us characters, then I’ll have my worst suspicions verified. The game is already so clearly rigged to frustrate users into spending their money on gems to try to advance. (Frequently in vain.) So will Gameloft finally earn their pay by actually expanding the game, or will they once again just screw their users for the almighty dollar???
We’ll see.
Thanks for this Jaysen. I have 6 attractions just sitting in storage. I have collected enough potion to build one of the offered attraction but I simply have nowhere to put it. I have invested real life cash on this game but I feel like dropping it. I haven’t really bothered with Zootopia because there are yet more building to be placed. It has really affected my enjoyment of the game. I’m also fed up with the requisite grind to get the event characters and level them up. Even the diamond purchased characters have to be levelled up with no advantage for having been purchased (pay for even more tedious grinding? No thanks). Hence why I haven’t bothered with most of them [just have Tinkers & Pluto]. It’s a real shame because I did love playing but right now I just don’t care who is introduced to the game. I will continue to read your excellent posts, which have always given me as much joy as playing the game. I won’t uninstall the game because one day I hope to have Snow White & C° and the Little Mermaid. Enjoy the Lion King…..💜X
I have all the attractions (bar the jumping jellyfish I think) and have them all out.
I just put it all away and rearranged and it all fitted great.
What about lion king theatre which is only attraction in Disney , parade float , but they need to sort out chests as it is completely impossible to get new concession stands out of them , gold chests all you get a flag of coronara ,
I am so excited to see the Lion King become a part of my kingdom!!! I have this is not a timed event though I’m fairly sure it will be. I have played the last three events: Beauty and the Beast, Mulan and Frozen and I haven’t finished any of them. Any tips on completing events from more experienced players? I have less than 100 gems and I can’t afford to spend money on a game, as much as I’d love to. Even if I don’t get the gem characters I’m okay with risking 60 gems later on to get them. I really want to finish this event!!
From the looks of it, it looks like it’s gonna be timed
I have played every event and have spent real money only a few times. Here is my advice:
Keep leveling up your characters: every time you level up a character you get gem. Level 10 gives you 5 and if you complete a set you get some gems back for doing so.
Dont spend gems on anything except for characters parade floats and attractions. Everything else is a waste.
The parade floats are worth it. They drop gems from time to time and recoup the cost in not to much time.
Last, watch the adds every day to get the 2 free gems.
If you do all that you can probably save up enough to buy the special event characters. One of them tends to come in promo pack thats only 2 dollars and the other buy with your saved gems.
These game devs work hard to animate these characters. If we love the game, 2 to 6 dollars every few months or every other event is a fair price to keep supporting a free to play game.
Have fun!! 🙂
Thanks!! I will try and level as many characters as I can, but I also try to not level them up during events to have a better chance of getting the event character tokens. 🙂 What do you think of the legendary chests? Are they worth it? I got four Frozen ones with characters or attractions in every one….But my Mulan, Incredibles, and Beauty and the Beast ones just gave me concessions I already have.
The only event I didn’t finished in the time parameter was The Incredibles (which I finally was able to when the Omnidroid City was available in Merlin’s shop). My advice: get the parade float and send it often, it drops both event currency (which was where I felt short with the Incredibles) and occasionally tokens. Be thoughtful when leveling up characters as part of the event, especially if the “common” token is like the Snowgies from Frozen and the Roses from BatB – I was using up all of my common tokens when I didn’t need to level up my characters to advance the game. Remember that you can be leveling up your other characters in the game not related to the event to get those precious gems. I usually get the pack of characters with the $4 offer or whatever when it comes up (I remind myself how much I spend on WiiU and PC games to get over this lol).
I have almost never gemmed out of a bunch of tasks and have managed to finish it. Keep an eye on the timeline provided and know when you should be hitting certain stages. (I’ve also been known to bring my tablet to work with me and check for character quests while I’m in the bathroom. Nobody tell my boss LOL)
Also, not sure if you’re a regular reader of Jaysen here, but read his (and the Wikia entry)’s walkthroughs during the event. They’ve been SO helpful to find out how long quests take, what tokens to be looking for, which characters have the best drops and so on.
Thanks!! I am so excited for this event!! Even though I probably won’t finish it due to it being summertime and I’ll be gone(no wifi :-()alot. I have 130 gems saved…..Hoping for at least 150 before the event starts which should be enough for the parade float, and a concession stand or two. I will definitely keep reading here for hints and tips during the next few weeks.
So looking forward to the Lion King (so much so I had to rewatch it last night 😉 ) I think the character list will be Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa, Scar, Zazu (gem) and Rafiki (gem). That being said Nala and Zazu are at the bottom of my list of actually being there. To me they need to have Rafiki so he can say “Follow ole Rafiki he know the way!” But ultimatly (more that characters) I just want some LAND!!!
I am so excited!!! I put all my decorations in storage and moved my buildings around and was happy to discover that I have much more room than I thought. 🙂 Plenty of space left over for the new buildings
I need more space. If I put all my decorations away in favour of placing all rides and concessions will I have less guests or will they be less happy?
I’ve put away almost all my decorations and only have one of every concession I have and I haven’t seen a decrease in happiness or visiting guests.
Oh and I’ve still got room to spare for new decorations, yay!
Update 12 will have Characters from :
– The Lion King : Simba, Nalla, Rafiki, Zazu, Pumba, Timon and Scar.
– The Jungle Book : Mowgli and Bagheera
– Toy Story : Bullseye and Alien.
+ New Expansion : Frontierland
As for attractions : The Circle Of life, Tree of Life and and Festival of the Lion King.
Rafiki and Zazu Will be premium characters.
Sell your decorations to Merlin. They. Are a waste of space with no benefit. I have every building and lots of concessions but space is tight. We need land. Lion king should be fun. But is rather have the hyenas than zazu or Nala. Also they kid have the Lon king fextival like in animal kingdom. They already have the philharmonic so why not?
Is the new update goin to. E July 6th?
Here we go! The event just started. Good luck to all of you
Really enjoying this event. I’m so grateful & happy to have read Jaysen’s article about the teaser to the event. Can’t believe I was gonnna sit it out 😲I’ve just finished battling Scar. The animation was fabulous. Once I catch my hand post event I’ll definitely get a few gem characters so that I fare better with the special side quests to win extra event currency. I am always so far down the list. Of all I have played I’ve been in the top 10 twice or thrice max. I think it would help. Can’t wait to open up the new land. Have Bullseye ready to go. How’s everyone else doing? I hope you’re all on track. Praying Scar won’t be super difficult to get too…..💜X