What do you consider to be a part of tlk canon?

[Elton John]

I only view the first movie as definitive canon. After that everything gets messy with big leaps of logic, enough plot holes to make swiss cheese blush, and things that make little sense within the context of the original.

We have

the six new adventures. Disney pretends this doesn’t exist as its not a Disney creation.

the timon and pumbaa show doesnt even pretend to be remotely canon.

the first dtv sequel, which adds a bunch of characters that apparently existed in the timeline of the original but were never a part of the original. I like Kovu and Zira enough to pretend that they were on vacation in Hawaii when the battle for pride rock happened.

then the broadway show, which i consider to be a seperate entity from the rest.

then we have the second dtv sequel. I consider it to be a ‘what if’ story and not something that compliments the original.

then we have kingdom hearts 2, another part i consider to be a seperate entity.

then we have the lion guard. oh boy where do I even begin with this one?


But I like the first sequel and the lion guard enough to want them to be canon.

[Panpardus]

Of those, I consider The Lion King, Simba's Pride, (elements of) Lion King 1.5, and The Lion Guard as all canon to each other.

The other stuff is each its own thing; Timon and Pumbaa I'm sure never even pretended to be part of the movie universe, Six New Adventures is some off-brand spinoff stuff (that I never read and thus aren't really all that attached to), and the Broadway show, Kingdom Hearts, and the 2019 version are each just alternate tellings of the same story.

[TheLionPrince]

The first three films and The Lion Guard are canon. Yes, Simba's Pride adds more additional followers that were not there in the original film, but it connects the first film thematically which is why it feels canon. As for 1½, Timon's backstory and how he met Pumbaa is canon, although the characters being at every stage of the first act of the original film is a bit of stretch. Timon meeting Rafiki in 1½ pretty much creates a plot hole since Timon doesn't know him when he makes his "Who's the monkey?!" comment in the original film.

In my headcanon, I ignore The Lion Guard although it is. It just adds more contradictions and messes up an established timeline that has enough contradictions already. I'm not even sure if they will address whether the Lion Guard disbands or not when Kiara and Kovu grow up. The Broadway musical and the 2019 remake are just alternate universes. I never considered Kingdom Hearts II to be part of the canon.

Six New Adventures probably was intended to be canon, but Simba's Pride overrode it to be the official sequel. I do read some fans' comments on YouTube that still insist that Scar's real name is Taka and Mufasa and Scar's parents are named Ahadi and Uru while some acknowledge Kopa is not canon. Others use the "Zira killed Kopa" theory to fit him in the film universe. However, since Kopa is not canon, contents about his life can't be canon either and Simba's Pride establishes that a facial scar like Scar's comes from a lion's claw, not a water buffalo. It's safe to say Six New Adventures is in its own little universe.

The Brightest Star, which tells the story of Simba's grandfather Mohatu, doesn't contradict anything, but pretty much every spin-off book that isn't Lion Guard or Simba's Pride-related is not canon.

[Sigurd]

The first two movies basically, also the Broadway version since it isn't too much conflict between it and the movie.

[Panda-chan]

Only the first movie is canon in my opinion. But since Disney wants to retcon some aspects of the first movie, I'd go so far as to say that the original interpretation of the first movie is the only canon. I also feel like any further tidbits the directors of the film drop about the movie, such as the revelation that TLK takes place before humans exist, are also canon since these are original aspects of the film that just never got mentioned until now.

As much as I would like Simba's Pride to be canon, I can only consider it semi-canon thanks to all the plotholes.

[Elton John]

scar and mufasa are still brothers, that was fake news.

[WildSimba]

[quote="Panda-chan"]Only the first movie is canon in my opinion. But since Disney wants to retcon some aspects of the first movie, I'd go so far as to say that the original interpretation of the first movie is the only canon. I also feel like any further tidbits the directors of the film drop about the movie, such as the revelation that TLK takes place before humans exist, are also canon since these are original aspects of the film that just never got mentioned until now.

As much as I would like Simba's Pride to be canon, I can only consider it semi-canon thanks to all the plotholes. [/quote]

I completely agree with this. Only the first movie is definitely canon. Beyond that, we're going off of what are solid continuations from outside people working on them, but not people who shared the same vision on the original film. The rest is maybe part of the overall extended universe, but not something I would definitively place as canon. This happens a lot in media though (A great example, is that Bioshock 2 is not considered canon to the universe, even though it is technically a main game in the series. Only the original game and Infinite were made by the original creators, so that is where the original intention is)

[TheLionPrince]

I always asked myself what are the rules for how something is considered canon. Early into my years into the fandom, I considered the first film canon and everything else "official" as within the universe. If we define canon by the involvement of the original creators (such as Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, Don Hahn, and the first film's writers), then, the first film is definitely canon, but then again, Allers and co-screenwriter Irene Mecchi wrote the libretto for the Broadway musical and contributed "additional screenplay material" to The Lion King 1½.

They wrote the musical in mind to correspond with Julie Taymor's vision who wanted to see more female involvement in the story, which resulted in Rafiki being a female and the "Madness of King Scar" musical number. I'm not sure what their actual contributions for 1½ are, but Allers went on to the record stating they "made suggestions, came up with gags" during story meetings.

Then, the lines of what's canon and the creators' involvement becomes blurred as those works aren't too faithful to the original interpretation of the first film.

[FlipMode]

Lion King
Lion King 2
Lion King 3

Lion Guard just makes the films weird like the characters just forgot about all that.
I'm not saying I don't like Lion Guard, it's not bad. But it doesn't really fit with the story.
Then again Lion King has always just done it's own thing and since TLK2 has been very obviously made up as they went along instead of actually being a planned out story.

[zerodix]

lion king, 6 new adventures, Lion Guard and Simbas Pride. Also, the friendly five and their respective comics are considered canon by me. and the following characters:
lions:
Mohatu
Ahadi and Uru
Mufasa and Sarabi
Scar and Zira, having Nuka and Vitani
Simba and Nala, having Kopa, Kiara and Kion
Kovu, later on with Kiara.
Sarafina, Tiifu, Zuri and the newest addition Rani


The more important other species:
the hyenas, all that appear in tlk and tlg
rafiki and makini
beshte ono fuli and bunga
the jackalls
the various leopards and other animals that appear in tlg.