Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen: We had no worries about updating Timon and Pumbaa’s comic double act

Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen channelled Timon and Pumbaa’s “Hakuna Matata” motto while working on the CGI remake of The Lion King.

The actors, whose characters were played by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella in the original 1994 film, told Standard Online that they had no worries about voicing two of Disney’s best loved creations.

“We knew no one would blame us if this went south,” Rogen said. “I think you got to trust that you've been hired for a reason and to just do your best and bring as much of yourself to it as possible.

“And with our characters, especially, adding new comedy is something people are always receptive to. So it was a little less intimidating in some ways.”

Eichner revealed that director Jon Favreau allowed him and Rogen to use improvisation to ensure that Timon and Pumbaa’s comic chemistry felt authentic.

“There was a ton of improvising, a lot of riffing,” he said, adding that the pair were able to “record in the same room together, which is very rare for these types of movies.

“Even Donald Glover was there when we did Hakuna Matata, JD [McCrary] was there when we did our scenes with him and a lot of that ended up in the movie.

“I think it really helped us create our own versions of the characters and not just rely on old jokes from 30 years ago.”

Rogen added that the duo’s “married couple rapport” was “easy to maintain and easy to add jokes around.”

“I think what people mostly love about them is the fact that they seem to care about each other so much,” he said.

“That was the thing we knew more than anything that we had to maintain - these two characters who spend all their time together who kind of love each other and also kind of hate each other, but it’s like a family.”

The Lion King is out in cinemas on July 19.