Beyonce is bringing out the star power for Black Is King. The superstar revealed a new trailer for the visual album on Sunday, featuring appearances by Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong’o, JAY-Z, Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, Tina Knowles Lawson and more.
The film, which will premiere globally on Disney+ on July 31, is based on the music of The Lion King: The Gift, and will premiere just two weeks after the movie was released last year. “The film reimagines the lessons from the 2019 blockbuster for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns,” Disney said on Sunday. Many artists featured on The Lion King: The Gift album will also make appearances on Black Is King.
Black Is King includes full-length videos for the songs “Already,” “Brown Skin Girl,” “Mood 4 Eva” and “My Power,” which is heard in the new trailer.
The visual album was in production for one year, filming in New York, Los Angeles, South Africa, West Africa, London and Belgium. Disney has reached a distribution deal to make Black Is King available in much of Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Cameroon, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Somalia, Benin, Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Gabon, Cape Verde and many more countries through MultiChoice Group’s M-Net and Canal+ Afrique.
Beyonce is credited as writer, director and executive producer on Black Is King. Collaborators on the project include Bey’s frequent music video director Jake Nava, Pierre Debusschere, “This Is America” creative director Ibra Ake, filmmakers Blitz Bazawule, Emmanuel Adjei, Dikayl Rimmasch and Jenn Nkiru.
