Filmmaker Barry Jenkins says late Hollywood veteran James Earl Jones, the original voice of Mufasa, was like a "patriarch" to him and there was no way he couldn't honour the man in his latest directorial "Mufasa: The Lion King".

Jones, who died in September at the age of 93, voices starred in the 1994 Oscar-winning animated feature "The Lion King" as Mufasa, the father of the titular character Simba.

While the actor returned for the franchise's 2019 live-action remake, he didn't reprise the role for the prequel, which opens in theatres on December 20.

Jenkins' "Mufasa: The Lion King" begins with the voice of Jones, followed by a title card that reads, "In Remembrance".

The director, known for "Moonlight" and "If Beale Street Could Talk", said he had to pay tribute to the late actor in the upcoming film.

"When I think about what James Earl Jones means, not even just to me, but to global audiences — people know this — I grew up without a father figure, and you go in and you watch this art, you watch these films, sometimes these fathers in these movies become a stand-in for that. They become these father figures," he told Variety.

So, when Jones died, the Oscar winner said it felt like they lost a "patriarch".

"We had all lost this man who meant so much. It felt like there was no way you could sit in this movie – go through an hour and 40 minutes — and not honor him in some way.

"You would be thinking about the ways in which you wanted to honor him, so it felt like we had to do it at the very front. The studio agreed right away, and we tried to find something that was very simple, but also very clear and very powerful," he added.

Aaron Pierre voices the title role in "Mufasa: The Lion King".

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