Why?

[king simba]

Why change kopa?

Was present in the first part

But in the TLK2 kiara

[atouchofgrace]

It was stated the baby's name was Kopa at the end of the first movie? No.
The creators said its name was Fluffy, a cub with no gender. They didn't want to contunue the story, why bother with the name or sex, it's useless. Kopa appeared in the BOOKS, Kiara was created by SP's staff.
Even today after the books and the sequel, the directors say the cub's name is Fluffy, not Kopa or Kiara. They don't acknowledge both of them.

It's simple:
1- TLK came first (Fluffy)
2 - The books came after TLK (Kopa)
3 - SP came after TLK and the books (Kiara)
4 - Even today, the original creators deny both books and sequel (Kopa and Kiara)

So, the timeline is:
1 - Fluffy
2 - Kopa
3 - Kiara

Fluffy came first, he/she is the original one.

[Pixie]

For the 8,563,278th time, Kopa is NOT the cub at the end of TLK.

[king simba]

Oh, Cub in the first film is not kopa!!

[AdAstrα]

This really bugs me. If whoever decided a sequel would be a good idea really wanted to make one, they could at least have made it more true to the original film =/ And put more effort into making it.

[MalibuTrashDog]

Does it really matter? Nothing in the films is really consistent so why speculate about things that the creators didn't really care about anyway?

[atouchofgrace]

If whoever decided a sequel would be a good idea really wanted to make one, they could at least have made it more true to the original film =/ And put more effort into making it.

Unfortunately, most Disney sequels are this way. They think "Why would we spend a lot of money and time with a filler movie that will certainly make money and get attention?"

[king simba]

Lion King

I love him

Is a wonderful film

[KopsTheTerminator]

Does it really matter? Nothing in the films is really consistent so why speculate about things that the creators didn't really care about anyway?

[SuperBabySimba]

The cub at the end was never Kopa.

1.) In the film itself it wasm't given a name nor gender. No character or texts say anything about those details.
2.) In the commentary track the cub's creators didn't give it a real name nor gender.
3.) The only official sequel that was actually written by Disney's own people, as in the SP movie, never mentions Kopa in any way.

RESULT: Three damn valid and screaming reasons for why the cub in the end is NOT Kopa and thus Kopa wasn't changed into Kiara. The genderless Fluffy was finally given a gender and real name with the girl Kiara in the official movie universe, yet even down to this day in the official canon the cub remains the genderless Fluffy. That's the real story.

THE TIMELINE:

1.) Fluffy with no gender.
2.) Fluffy is given a gender and name for the BOOKS but not for the movie universe and the name and gender was given by outsider and approved by the general Disney and not by the film makers.
3.) Fluffy is given its official gender and real name for the movie universe in general, finally by Disney's film makers.
4.) The canon film makers make clear that even so, in the official canon the cub remains genderless Fluffy.

----Kopa never existed in the movie universe. Kopa couldn't have been changed into Kiara.

Simple. Not rocket science.