3173. Zira

Zira is a lioness and the main villain in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, she was voiced in the movie by Suzanne Pleshette. In Swahili, 'Zira' means 'hate'.

Zira is the main antagonist of the film. She is a lioness with dark coloration. She has red eyes, one notched ear, and a stripe down the center of her head. Zira is a hate-filled character, and is very conniving. She seems to be patient, as she was willing to wait until Kovu reached adulthood before putting her plans into motion. However, she generally shows little affection even for her children unless they are of use to her, and is willing to abandon or even kill them if they will not follow her path of vengeance. However, despite her strengths, she suffers the same downfall as Scar; her hatred blinds her.
Shortly before the end of The Lion King, Zira was Scar's most devoted of his followers. However, after Simba returned, Zira was exiled along with her followers for their continued loyalty to Scar. After that, Zira held Simba responsible for Scar's death, and plotted to both avenge Scar and take back the throne. Zira and her followers became known as Outsiders.

Trivia

* It was originally planned for Zira to deliberately let go of the branches rather than simply reject Kiara's help, but her fall was instead depicted as her simply slipping while rejecting Kiara's aid as it was felt that the villain committing suicide was too 'adult' for a Disney movie. Despite this, however, while "screaming" during her fall, the scene depicts her smiling.

* When Zira and Simba encounter each other onscreen for the first time, Zira's line "If you need your pound of flesh..." as she pushes Kovu forward is actually a reference to the Shakespearian play "The Merchant of Venice", even though "Simba's Pride" is based on "Romeo and Juliet".

* During early production the producer's had originally named Zira "Bianca" but this wasn't "swahillian" enough in which her name was changed to Zira.

* In early prodction, Zira was originally going to be Scar's mate. Because this would cause incest between her son, Kovu, and Scar's niece and Simba's daughter, Kiara, this was removed.