And if she was the queen of a real-life lion pride, she’d take on so much more than a supporting role. Her role in the film is so inconsequential she’s easy to forget. But Simba’s mother? What was her name again? Mufasa, his father, who dies when Simba’s uncle, the black-maned Scar, plots to take his throne. All the male lions have central and memorable roles in the film: Simba, the main character destined to become king. The males come and go,” says Craig Packer, one of the world’s leading lion researchers and director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota.īut unless you’re a Lion King superfan, it’s a pretty good bet that you can’t remember the name of Simba’s mom. They catch the vast majority of the food, and they guard the territory from intruders-mostly other females that live nearby looking to expand their own territories. A lion pride is all females all the time.
