The filmmakers on both films never heard or refer to Kopa in their film. On the Laserdisc audio commentary (that was later transferred to the DVD and Blu-Ray releases), producer and directors Don Hahn, Roger Allers, and Rob Minkoff stated the cub at the end of the first film was named "Fluffy". Phil Weinstein, a story artist on
Simba's Pride, was
unaware of Kopa's existence, which leads to the thought that the entire
Simba's Pride production team was unaware of the books. In fact, early in the development stages of
Simba's Pride, they had named Simba's son, Chaka, but
he was written out of the script following subsequent rewrites.
According to his creator, Alex Simmons admitted in an
email response that Kopa was indeed his creation and that he never directly worked with the filmmakers on either film concerning Kopa's existence in the films. He also speculated that the books were meant to be seen as a separate entity from the film.