‘I’ve filmed a groundbreaking new nature series – but David Attenborough thought I was mad’

Anyone who grew up in the 90s will agree that one particular film scene caused us irreparable childhood trauma.

I am, of course, talking about the moment in The Lion King when Mufasa dies at the hands of his evil brother Scar, after leaping into danger to save his young son Simba from a stampede. Just thinking about Simba begging his dad to wake up brings a tear to my eye.

As I tuned in to watch National Geographic’s groundbreaking new series Lion, which follows a cub called Kio from eight weeks old until he’s an adult strong enough to claim the throne, I expected to suffer similar heartache. 

‘The arc of it in the end is hopeful and is a triumph. That is the lesson of life that you want people to have,’ executive producer Mark Gunton, a longtime collaborator of Sir David Attenborough, assured me when he spoke to Metro.

The more I learnt about Lion, the more I was left in awe. The crew followed Kio in Kenya’s Maasai Mara for four years, from the early stages of his life – when he was first introduced to his pride by his mother – into adulthood. I had no idea that only around one in eight male lion cubs survive to adulthood, while various statistics claim that between 20 to 50% of cubs make it past the age of two.

This made the fact that the film crew were able to track Kio for four years even more remarkable. When people found out about their ambitious project, they had their doubts, Mark admitted. But he, fellow executive producer Jon, composer Hans Zimmer and their many colleagues were determined to make their dream a reality.

‘To my knowledge, nobody’s ever been able to tell the story of a single male cub from the moment it effectively emerged out of the den to becoming a powerful king amongst kings, so that opportunity has been amazing,’ Mark shared.

The idea for Lion came from a few different sources. Of the many programmes he’s created over the years with Sir David, Mark had recently worked on Dynasties, a phenomenal BBC series that follows different groups of animals, including a pride of lions in the Maasai Mara.

Jon directed the 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King, while maestro Hans composed the score of the film and the original 1994 animated release. So for all three of them, this new endeavour was a major passion project. 

‘Jon, Hans and I, our job was to drive the vision of it. It was rather nice that Jo, Hans and I have worked together now, either together, all three of us, or individually, on a number of projects,’ Mark, a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit, said.

‘Hans did the music for The Planet Earth projects I worked on. Jon and I worked on the series Prehistoric Planet for Apple. Our paths crossed on many occasions. 

‘This one seemed the one where absolutely it’s a no-brainer to come together, because of Jon and Hans having worked on the remake Lion King, Hans on the original Lion King. There’s a lot of emotional investment in this from all of us in different ways, and you don’t get these opportunities very often.’

Mark hopes that Lion will appeal to audiences of all ages, from six-year-olds to 90-year-olds, and I suspect it will. The ambitious series provides an illuminating insight into what life in a pride, and away from one, is really like for a lion, and demonstrates that these powerful creatures are far more than ‘jaws and claws’.

‘Of course, lions are predators; they eat things, and they fight. But much more of the time, it’s more subtle. It’s much more about social connections and decisions about alliances and politics, so we’ve majored on that, which I think is more relatable to our own lives, because there’s a lot of parallels to what goes on about maternal care and about brotherly rivalry,’ he explained.

The parallels to the tale of The Lion King are undeniable – and as it turns out, in some instances, intentional.

‘We have both accidentally and deliberately made connections with the original Lion King, and there are lots of parallels,’ Mark acknowledged. 

‘The fundamental difference is that in The Lion King there is only one king, whereas in nature, there’s never one king. They’re a coalition of kings, plural. Within them there’ll always be one that maybe has a slight edge at times, and that’s another dynamic. Maybe that’s the story of series two.’

In one adorable moment early on in the series, Kio climbs on top of his big-maned dad as he lies down on the ground. It almost perfectly mirrored Simba clambering over Mufasa before the king’s tragic demise… and it’ll definitely pull on your heartstrings.

When people first heard that the creative brains behind Lion were planning on filming a cub’s journey for a significant amount of time, they were met with a wave of doubt. But they were determined to make it happen.

‘When people heard we were doing this, they all thought we were mad. Even when they didn’t even know we were just following a male cub, because of course, you try and keep these things a bit quiet because you don’t want anybody to know what you’re doing,’ Mark recollected.

‘But following a male cub is almost insanity because lots of them don’t make it; they have a higher mortality rate. But also they tend to leave. The nature of lions is that when males get to a certain age, they tend to be evicted by either the males that are the current kings, or for other reasons, and disappear. And often properly disappear, never seen again. So it was a huge risk.’

Having worked with Sir David for around four decades, I had to know what the natural history legend thought of this project – and I was informed that he too was astounded by their ambitions.

‘He actually did say he thought I was mad, but he also thought if you can pull this off…he very kindly said it’s a kind of new genre. So he’s a big supporter of it because it’s another window into learning about nature.’

One of the biggest takeaways I had from speaking to Mark was how grateful he was for the vast crew who worked on Lion, including the cinematographers who had to practise incredible patience while watching the lions, waiting for something significant to happen.

‘The cinematographers on this, just amazing sixth sense about how to get those one-off moments. Sophie [Darlington] was the DOP [director of photography]. She worked on the Dynasties show, so there’s a lovely connection. Simon Blakeney, who was the producer of that programme, he’s worked on this,’ Mark shared.

‘We’ve drawn on a huge amount of historical experience. Everything I’ve ever worked on, David’s voice or shadow is always there, just a little bit in the background, saying, “Have you thought about this?” He’s a great guru, even if he’s not literally telling you what he thinks. His shadow is a long shadow to cast.’

Lion is available to stream on Disney Plus.