When it comes to family entertainment, very few names, if any, come to mind more than Disney. The company has been crafting classics of kiddie cinema ever since “Steamboat Willie” premiered way back in 1928. And, like it or not, many of those classics came with a fair share of trauma, perhaps leading us down a timeline peppered with tragedy to get us wondering, regarding Disney’s incredibly successful The Lion King, what happened to Mufasa after his untimely death, including the horrible question, “Did Scar eat Mufasa?”
For many years, the death of Bambi’s mom has been the high (or low) watermark for childhood trauma in Disney animation, but new evidence seems to indicate that there’s a new King of the Psychodrama Jungle.
No, but seriously: Did you ever wonder how Scar got that skull he plays with in The Lion King?
You might want to sit down to read this.
Even before one starts looking for hidden details, The Lion King isn’t exactly short on tragic moments. Of all the films in Disney’s 1989-1999 “Renaissance” era Lion King easily ranks as the most poignant as well as the most watched. The death of Simba’s father Mufasa was as disturbing to Millennials as the death of Bambi’s mom was scarring to Baby Boomers.
But a disturbing fan theory suggests that the horror of Mufasa’s death goes even deeper than what audiences saw in the film.
How does Mufasa die?
In the film, we actually see Mufasa die in a fashion far more graphic than what is generally associated with the Disney brand. Scar, Mufasa’s younger brother, organizes a stampede of wildebeest in order to trample his nephew, Simba, to death. Simba is rescued by Mufasa but is unable to escape the trap and is hurled from a cliff into a gorge where he dies.
Scar usurps the throne and takes over the rulership of the lions of Pride Rock. But is that where it all ended?
Horrible question, but we’ve got to ask: Did Scar eat Mufasa?
In a later scene in the movie, Scar is shown in the royal den at Pride Rock, lounging on his “throne” as he is serenaded by Zazu. His couch is surrounded by bones, which he toys with as Zazu attempts to find a song to his liking.
As Zazu breaks into the song “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” Scar, humming along, picks up a skull and uses it to mime a singing performance.
But whose skull is it?
In 2021, Tik Toker Christian Jones posted a TikTok where he presented a gruesome theory — that Scar had eaten his brother in an act of predator dominance.
Do lions eat other lions?
It might be a very gruesome theory, but it does turn out that Scar eating his royal brother as vengeance is within the realm of possibility as far as real-life lions are concerned.
According to Zoologist James Tyrell, writing for South Africa’s Londolozi Private Game Reserve blog, while it is rare for one predator to eat another, “Carnivores do kill and eat other carnivores. A lot of the time the consumption of a rival is an act of dominance, particularly among lions.”
Thankfully, however, there are other theories out there to explain just how that skull got there that don’t entail post-fratricide cannibalism.
What else could have happened?
There is a chance, though, that you could answer the question, “Did Scar eat Mufasa?” with an emphatic no and some less cannibalistic explanation.
Scar certainly did not return to his brother’s body in the gorge for a while. If he had, he surely would have discovered that Simba was still alive. And while that doesn’t entirely take lion-on-lion feasting out of the picture, it makes it far more likely that Mufasa’s body was devoured by carrion feeders and scavengers.
Like hyenas.
Screen text in Jordan’s TikTok states that “hyenas don’t usually eat lions,” but this isn’t exactly true. Tyrell describes a lioness killed by males who “was consumed by hyenas that night.” The males simply walked away, letting the female hyenas scavenge the remains.
This being the case, it seems extremely likely that Scar’s hyena allies Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, all of whom had beef with Mufasa, were the ones who finished off his remains. It’s heavily implied that they killed Scar and did the same with his remains after the end of The Lion King.
Circle of Life indeed.
