In 1994 Walt Disney Pictures released an classic movie called The Lion King. It starred Simba, the heir to the Pride Land throne who just couldn't wait to be king. However, Simba's father Mufasa had a younger brother named Scar who eyed the throne. Having his hyena minions cause a stampede that causes Mufasa's demise. Scar tells Simba the stampede was his fault and fools the cub into self exile. Simba grows up, living by the motto Hakuna Matata, which means No Worries, which he learns from a meerkat named Timon and a gassy warthog named Pumbaa. As an adult he reunites with a childhood friend, a lioness named Nala. She tries to get him to come back, but fearing the pride's reaction to him coming back he refuses. He is persuaded by a wise mandril named Rafiki and his father's spirit to return and take his place in the Circle of Life. After a close call with Scar he learns he wasn't responsible for his father's death and orders Scar out. Scar attacks instead and gets kicked off a ledge. The hyenas, who Scar claimed was the reason for Mufasa's death, surround him and finish him off. Simba takes his place as king, and he and Nala have a cub together:



In the original script before revisions,Simba and Nala had a son.



The final script (with some things cut) left the cub genderless.



This cub was jokingly named Fluffy by the creators of The Lion King. Most of the merchandise referred to the cub as a male or left it genderless.









Their was speculation of who the cub was and many fans gave the cub an identity. One of the most popular incarnations was a lion named Tanabi from a fanfic series called The Tales of Tanabi, which got quite a fan following, even a MUCK server was made based on it.

Another popular incarnation was from a 1994 book series called The Lion King: 6 New Adventures by Alex Simmons. These books starred a lion named Kopa who loved to hear stories of the past, and often learned lessons from them. Since Disney approved the books to be published, it was believed that Kopa truly was the cub at the end of the movie.



The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride was announced in about 1997 and this trailer was shown using footage of baby Simba and no new animation.

During production of Simba's Pride, Simba and Nala were going to have two cubs: Aisha (Later changed to Shani, due to Aisha being the name of the yellow Power Ranger) and Chaka. To simplify the story they only kept one cub: A daughter named Shani.






Later on Shani lost her hair tuft and got renamed to Kiara.




She ended up being the final version of Simba and Nala's cub, and is considered by Disney to be the cub at the end of the first film.



Being a Disney movie, Kiara needed a love interest. The original one thought up was named Nunka, the son of Scar and Bianca (Working name for Zira).



However that would make him and Kiara cousins. Because of this he was renamed Kovu, and his relation to Scar was changed to just being his chosen heir, and his design was changed to look less like Scar.




The villain of this movie was originally named Bianca and was Scar's queen. Her role changed to being a follower (Though there is debate about it), and she was renamed Zira.




Zazu was going to have a girlfriend, a female horn bill named Binti. She had at least 20 designs when she was scrapped. There was also going to be a strong rhino character who was also cut, that was rumored Binti would ride.



The film was released October 27th 1998 on VHS.