Will the show be canon?

[crownofsimba]

I mean like, if we're going to assume canon is just "what happened in the TLK universe" then TLG will be canon.

But like there are several types of canon in this fandom, not including finer points there are like:

1) First Movie Purists: Only TLK1 is canon, not SP, not 1.5, nothing else. A subset of these would probably be people who consider the first movie and say Chronicles of the Pride Lands to be canon, since it was based entirely on TLK1.

2) TLK6NA Purists: Only TLK1 and 6NA are canon, Kiara isn't real and SP never happened. I've seen a few of these and they're generally considered unreasonable as far as I can tell.

3) TLK & SP Purists: Only TLK1 and SP are canon, Kopa never existed. These are fairly common, and to be honest this is the most logically "canon" out of each of the types, since movies override all other media (or at least they would in other fandoms). This is the most "official" but it still isn't; its not an officially declared canon but this is what the filmmakers of SP and the creators of TLG probably considered what happened.

4) Consolidators: What I call people who make up theories so that Kopa can exist and still keep the SP timeline. Also common (I am one of them), although they are sometimes frowned upon because of the TLK fandom's general dislike of fan theories that don't have mountains of evidence.

And of course each type has reasons to both include and exclude comic characters e.g. Tojo or Malka. Also there are a lot of canon conflicts around 6NA because of the Scar origin story as well.

But like when it comes to TLG people will consider it canon or not-canon based mostly on their personal impression of the show UP UNTIL it gets involved in a doctrinal conflict. It already is somewhat in that Kion is "second-born" because Kopa doesn't exist to the creators, but expect the real fight to come if the show ever covers say how Scar got his scar.

But like if you're asking if TLG is canon it depends on what you mean. The creators of TLG will almost certainly consider it to be so, but then the actual people who have worked on each film (not including VAs) are probably not actually shared that much.

[Carl]

The people who don't want it to be canon need to grow up. End of story. You have a headcanon? Good for you, so does everyone else, just ignore TLG if you don't like it. Your headcanon never was official anyway.

And Kopa was never and will never be canon, either. I don't have anything against Kopa, but he's not canon.

Kiara and Kion FTW.

I hope TLG is canon.

[SimbasGuard]

In some of the articles about The Lion Guard, it is referred to as a sequel series. So to me that says The Lion Guard is intended to be canon. However I understand what the people who believe a T.V. Series can not be cannon to a movie mean. Some Examples are:

All Dogs Go To Heaven The Series. While it is based on the movies, it is it's own separate canon.

Timon And Pumbaa: It drove me nuts trying to figure out where in continuity this show belonged. It took Lion King 1 1/2 to make me realize that Timon ans Pumbaa was in it's own continuity.

However The T.V. Series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter are in Canon with all the Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies.

As far as characters from other media being cannon, I sight this example:

When Disney bought Lucasfilm, They declared that all The Star Wars movies and The Clone Wars T. V. Series were canon. anything else from any other media was now sub-canon (or they may have just disavowed it all together). However they did state that they could take anything that they wanted from any Sub-Canon source and make it canon if they choose to.

I assume that the same would hold true of any Lion King sub-canon elements. So I look at it this way The Lion Guard will be canon. Now however unlikely this is I assume if Disney truly wanted to. They could take Kopa suddenly decided to make him canon and then they could put him in the show as well. I personally doubt that they would.

Personally as a Lion King fan I am absolutely thrilled to be getting more presumably official Lion King content.

[Lauren]

From some of those categories listed, I am a TLK & SP Purist since I count the first two films as canon. I do hope The Lion Guard will be added towards the continuation of where the two films left off and also count it as canon.

[Carl]

[quote="SimbasGuard"]They could take Kopa suddenly decided make him cannon and then they could put him in the show as well. I personally doubt that they would.[/quote]
They could. But to do so would negate Kiara and Kion's canonity at this point.

Like you, I do believe they intend for TLG to be canon, that's the way it's sounded. We'll just have to see.

[Captain Cupcake]

[quote="Lauren"]From some of those categories listed, I am a TLK & SP Purist since I count the first two films as canon. I do hope The Lion Guard will be added towards the continuation of where the two films left off and also count it as canon.[/quote]

I'm more of a First Movie Purist myself. I never consider any DTV sequels/midquels/prequels or TV series as canonical with the main animation studio's various works.

Besides the probability of them being relatively far lesser in quality compared to the original films, there's usually some kind of plot hole or inconsistency that punches continuity right in the gut and makes it difficult to consider them as anything more than nice(or, most of the time, not so nice...) supplementary material for the original features.

Sometimes, there may not even be any actual holes but the concepts utilized spit in the face of the main films, making it difficult to take them as a genuine continuations just as much as plot hole-littered ones.

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="Julie Skywalker"][quote="SimbasGuard"]They could take Kopa suddenly decided make him cannon and then they could put him in the show as well. I personally doubt that they would.[/quote]
They could. But to do so would negate Kiara and Kion's canonity at this point.[/quote]

Unless they changed his back story to make him fit, but then I guess he'd be Kopa in name only.

If they had any desire at all to use Kopa they would not have created Kion.

Oh well from what little we have have to go on at this point, Lion Guard looks like it could be better than we expect.

I'm surprised we have not heard anything officially from Disney yet. They advertised Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel a year in advance.

[crownofsimba]

I mean canon also depends on what the purpose of the expanded universe is, and usually you can tell how much a creator cares about canon by how much you, as a fan, have to mentally bend the narrative to fit.

Like take Star Wars, where the EU novels were made not only to make money but also to continue the story of everyone, which is why a lot of them (especially Timothy Zahn's) are really good. Same with some of the Star Wars video games, Knights of the Old Republic is AMAZING considering its a licensed video game. Here the EU is intended to continue the story and also generate new stories within the universe.

The EU of The Lion King is not made to continue the story. Simba's Pride was made to sell VHS tapes. The comics were made to advertise the movie, not tell stories. 6NA is kind of weird but it was made to sell books. That's why when you try to make it all make sense you have to write around things

But like idk if you went up to someone at Disney and asked them "is The Lion Guard canon?" they would probably look at you funny because I don't think it matters to them at all. Although maybe the writers care, which would be odd to me, but its possible.

Honestly we just need more news because the general fandom attitude towards the show is very tense. Although I'm not sure how much Disney cares about hyping up a Junior Show.

[Elton John]

[quote="Captain Cupcake"][quote="Lauren"]From some of those categories listed, I am a TLK & SP Purist since I count the first two films as canon. I do hope The Lion Guard will be added towards the continuation of where the two films left off and also count it as canon.[/quote]

I'm more of a First Movie Purist myself. I never consider any DTV sequels/midquels/prequels or TV series as canonical with the main animation studio's various works.

Besides the probability of them being relatively far lesser in quality compared to the original films, there's usually some kind of plot hole or inconsistency that punches continuity right in the gut and makes it difficult to consider them as anything more than nice(or, most of the time, not so nice...) supplementary material for the original features.

Sometimes, there may not even be any actual holes but the concepts utilized spit in the face of the main films, making it difficult to take them as a genuine continuations just as much as plot hole-littered ones.[/quote]

Well, i'll admit that the first sequel is full of continuity errors. That being said it's much higher in quality than the usual dtv sequel.

The musical numbers, for the most part are good. Stuff i'd listen to outside the movie. The animation is good. Not up to par with a theatrical disney release but much better than their 90's tv show animation.

And while i'm not a fan of nuka, i rather like kovu and kiara. I'm not familiar with kovus actor but I know he's like aladdin, he oozes charisma.

And if you ignore continuity errors the story on its own is good. A bit cliche for Disney but I judge a cliche/trope not on how much it's used but on how well it is used.

If the writers didn't care about canon they'd probably have left Kiara out, but they specifically mentioned that she's the future queen.

[Captain Cupcake]

[quote="Elton John"]Well, i'll admit that the first sequel is full of continuity errors. That being said it's much higher in quality than the usual dtv sequel.[/quote]

TLK 1½ also had some conflicting material, such as the hyenas being a part of its climax even though they're supposed to be witnessing Scar and Simba's last conversation, as well as playing a part in Scar's demise.

[quote]And if you ignore continuity errors the story on its own is good. A bit cliche for Disney but I judge a cliche/trope not on how much it's used but on how well it is used.[/quote]

I'm a bit more critical of the film. Using a Romeo and Juliet-esque concept could have been interesting, but the dialogue and conversations are so flat half of the time, and the main conflict is resolved so ridiculously quick and easy that it just undermines everything else preceding the finale of the movie. Kiara's little arc remained underdeveloped too. Early on she makes a big deal about how there's another side of her that desires something more out of life outside of being a princess, and then it just turns out that what she was missing was just a boyfriend(complete with not-so-subtle "other half" imagery to hammer the point down). Coupled with the continuity issues and the Outlander concept that does a disservice to the conclusion of the first film and everything Simba fought for, it's really one of my least liked Disney DTV sequels of the lot.

No matter what The Lion Guard turns out to be, I definitely hope to see it be a lot more respectful to the original source material. Canon or not, I care more about it being a faithful and exceptional series that's entertaining for both children and adults(despite its target audience). Something that holds a lot of integrity and does The Lion King justice.