The Lion King: Incredible fan theory shines new light on Simba in Disney classic

Fans have been heaping praise on the post on Reddit, with many saying it’s something they’d never even realised. Simba is chased away from Pride Rock by Scar after the death of Mufasa, leaving Scar to assume the throne. What follows, while Simba is away, is a huge drought. Is there more to that than meets the eye?

User Spixdon wrote: “This is probably something that is super obvious to everyone, but it was a revelation to me today when I watched Lion King with my son, so….

“Simba caused the drought in Pride Rock.

“The past kings, like Mufasa, are in the sky. Specifically the clouds as shown by Mufasa talking to Simba when he is with Timon and Pumbaa.

“The clouds, which carry the rain, left to follow the rightful king when he left Pride Rock.”

They added: “Simba spends years with Timon and Pumbaa in an apparent tropical jungle that obviously gets plenty of rainfall.

“When he is shown going back towards Pride Rock, the clouds roll in behind him. They seemingly follow the rightful king back to the pridelands and it begins raining shortly after.

“For years, it bugged me how Scar taking power somehow caused a drought.

“It really wasn’t Scar seizing control or the hyena population explosion that caused a weather issue, but the rightful leader abandoning his people and taking the wisdom of the elders with him.”

The post has been 97% Upvoted by thousands of readers since being shared over the weekend.

It’s timely, too: the hype machine is currently building for the CGI “live action” version of The Lion King, which is due in cinemas next year.

Its trailer, released earlier this month, achieved 224.6 million views in its first 24 hours.

It’s out on July 19, 2019.