Donald Glover and James Earl Jones join Favreau’s Lion King cast! Director Jon Favreau took to Twitter on Friday evening to announce two members of The Lion King cast. It’s the latest in a line of live-action versions of Disney animated classics which include the upcoming Beauty and the Beast and Favreau’s recent The Jungle Book. The Lion King cast includes Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta) as the young lion Simba and James Earl Jones (Star Wars) as Mufasa.