The King Movie Facts, Easter Eggs and hidden details

You can see the number 45 written between Simba's back and tail. It appears at 9:16, right as Mufasa says the word 'you' in the line "...and it will rise with you, as the new king". It lasts for only one frame.

Pumbaa gets angry when he's called "pig" and screams "They call me MISTER PIG!" This is a reference to Sidney Poiter's line in "In the Heat of the Night" where he had just been insulted by a southern cop.

The characters Timon and Pumbaa were only put in the movie because Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella auditioned so well together. They were originally auditioned for the hyenas, but were so funny that Timon and Pumbaa was created for them

Gandalf brought 3 eagles with him because he believed Smeagol wasn't beyond redemption

One of the castles taken in "The Outlaw King" (2018) is the same castle from the wedding scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975).

Lionel Logue tells King George IV "I believe smoking will kill you". He died of of lung cancer in 1952.

Before attacking the hyenas in the cave, Pumba shouts "They call me, Mr. Pig!" This is a reference to the 1967 "In the Heat of the Night" quote, "They call me Mr. Tibbs."

And The Hobbit (2012), the prequel to the LOTR trilogy, the stone trolls can be seen frozen in the same position.

. Seen the movie literally hundreds of times. Never realized until tonight that Eowyn grabs a scimitar from an orcs hand before using it to take down an oliphant.

Peter Jackson had a cameo in "The Return of the King" (2004) as one of the pirates. He was cut out of the theatrical cut, but appears in the extended cut.

The hyena rally during "Be Prepared" uses the same camera angles as actual photographs and footage from Nazi rallies.

There are giant anteaters that appear in the I Just Can't Wait to Be King song. Giant anteaters, however, are native to South America and not Africa.

In Bilbo and Frodo's book, "There and Back Again," there are marks over each of the vowels, a nod to Tolkien's elvish writing system of Tengwar, which uses marks over other letters to denote the presence of vowels.

When Pippin looks in to the palantir and wakes everyone up, Gimli stays passed out from drinking too much that night. (see bottom left hand corner)

Pippin tells Denethor that "the mightiest man may be slain by one arrow, Boromir was pierced by many" (3 in fact). Later, Faramir survives the ambush after being shot twice, implying he is indeed his brother's equal.

", during the epic scene of the Rohirrim Charge Peter Jackson requested that only extras who have read the novel and could recite the scene, to be placed in the front lines as they are aware of the importance of this moment. It's how he ended up with this epic rider.

The giant eagle that saves Frodo & Samwise, as originally described in J.R.R. Tolkien's book (1955), was inspired by the pub in Oxford where Tolkien famously wrote much of the novels. The pub's plackard depicts a large eagle carrying a boy.

King Henry V wears a ring with Henry V's actual signature.

Samwise Gamgee finally returns home and is hugged by his daughter, Elanor. That's Sean Astin's daughter in real life, Alexandra.

The lions retract/extend their claws as needed (even in subtle moments) . . . but Scar's claws are always out.

An officer in the control room instinctively begins to draw his sidearm when a hostage on the train is killed despite not being on the scene, himself.

During the celebration at Edoras, you can spot a young boy doing some underage drinking, much to the shock of the woman beside him.

Timon told Pumbaa not to say "farted" because we were kids. In the Lion King (2019), he lets Pumbaa say it cause we're all adults

You can see scarring around Frodo's neck where the chain carrying the One Ring would have hung showing that the Ring physically affects Frodo as a heavy burden

Shenzi the Hyena has no eyebrows, just like Whoopi Goldberg who lends her voice to the character.

Merry and Pippin continued wearing the uniforms of Gondor and Rohan upon returning to the Shire.

Simba becomes the king of lions, or the Leijonakuningas as it's known in Finnish. Leijonakuningas translated to English is "Lion King" which is a quiet nod to the title of the movie.

Due to Jeremy Irons having vocal cord issues, Jim Cummings sang the last third of the song "Be Prepared."

The Palant?r seeing-stone Aragorn holds does not activate until he actually looks directly at it.

The hyenas fatten up once they're allowed into Scar's kingdom, since they eat much more regularly now.

We see Denethor holding Boromir's broken horn. We actually see the horn being broken after Boromir is shot by the third arrow in The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Simba only leaves 2 pairs of footprints because cats walk by placing their rear legs where their front legs went.

Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) gives Prince Albert (Colin Firth) a glass of scotch in a fine crystal glass while drinking his own from a regular glass.

At the end of "I Just Can't Wait to be King," Zazu says to the rhinoceros sitting on him: "I beg your pardon, madam, but get off!" He knew it was a female rhino because of what he was looking at while he was stuck under her.

Timon tells Pumbaa the stars are fireflies and not burning balls of gas. This mirrors a line from Hamlet, which the movie is based on: "Doubt thou the stars are fire." (Act 2, Scene 2)

Just as the bischop calls the live broadcast a "Pandora's Box", you can see how the king is caged by the microphone, but the bischop isn't.

The atomic bomb has "I like Ike" written on the side referring to one of President Eisenhower's campaign slogans and opposition to communism.

Two scars on Frodo's chest are clearly visible: on his right the hit received on the chain mail of mithril under the mines of Moria, on his left the wound received by the Witch-King on Weathertop.

When the gate of Minas Tirith is first breached, Easterlings can be seen in behind the orcs and trolls, which are also seen in The Two Towers when Frodo and Sam reach the Black Gate.

Lionel Logue, instead of focusing on the mechanical and speech issues, actually listens and hears King Albert's speech. For a second, he stops being his therapist and becomes another subject looking for reassurance and comfort in the King's words.

Simba's claws are extended when he climbs a branch in 'I Just Can't Wait to Be King' - The Lion King (1994)

One of King George's staff members gives him his speech and says it will take almost nine minutes to read. This is because he and almost everyone else was unaware that the King was seeing Logue in the first place

Gandalf brought three eagles to the erupting Mount Doom instead of two -- presumably to save Smeagol had he survived.

Zazu rhetorically asks Scar "Didnt Your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?" Later on, directly after Mufasa's death, Scar passes up his chance to kill Simba by essentially "playing with his food." In the end, this leads to his demise.

During "Be Prepared," the hyenas' marching past Scar on the elevated rock was inspired by footage of Nazis marching by Adolf Hitler on a podium.

When Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor, his armour is very similar to Elendil's armour at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Elendil was the first High King of Gondor.

As we see Frodo finishing his manuscript, the director pulls back to reveal the missing finger of Frodo's hand, a reminder of his moment of weakness inside Mount Doom.

Merry's helmet in the Ride of the Rohirrim appears to be repaired. It shows a nice link to how people at that tech level would treat armor. Repair, not remake.

Robert DeNiro plays a character obsessed with being a comedy great, idolising a late night host, then in Joker (2019) Robert DeNiro plays a late night host idolised by the Joker.

Timon talks directly into Pumbaa's ear (42:15) and the audio begins to echo, creating the effect that Timon is talking into an empty void (Pumbaa has no brain in his head).