Mheetu’s Parentage and Where He Went

            Mheetu was a character from the earlier stages of The Lion King (TLK), back when the movie was called King of the Jungle. He’s Nala’s little brother and, though he never made it into the final version of the movie, some people include him in the semi-canon sources. If we include him, it brings up two questions: who is Mheetu’s father and what happened to Mheetu that kept him from appearing in the movie? I’ll be trying to answer these with fan theories. I’ll also be referencing The Lion Guard

(TLG) and the Six New Adventures books.

Scar Was Mheetu’s Father

            One fan theory is that Scar sired Mheetu during his reign, possibly based on Mheetu’s physical description. Like Scar, Mheetu was supposed to have darker fur and a pointed/Outlander-like nose. If Scar really was his father then Mheetu was probably the result of one of Scar’s early attempts to secure an heir for himself. It’s possible that Scar approached Sarafina before he was mated to Zira. This would be perfectly in line with Scar’s personality, as evidenced by the deleted scene from TLK and the song from the Broadway musical (that was later animated by fans) in which Scar tries to convince Nala to be his mate. This would also tie into theories I discussed in an earlier post about Nuka, Vitani, and Kovu because it suggests that Scar was very picky about his heirs. If, for example, Mheetu was weak or sickly then Scar would move on to another plan for an heir, which would explain why Kovu is Scar’s next-in-line instead of Mheetu, Nuka, or Vitani.

Nala and Mheetu Had the Same Father

            Another theory is that Nala and Mheetu have the same father. If this is true then their father was probably either a Prideland male that we haven’t heard about (there is evidence of othermales in the Pridelands in the Six New Adventures books) or a rogue. A recent theory, which surfaced after the premiere of Lion Guard: Return of the Roar, is that their father was one of the four lions in the Guard with Scar. This would explain why he isn’t around in the movie, since Scar destroyedthe Guard before the start of TLK. However, this still leaves the question of why Mheetu doesn’t appear in TLK. In this case Mheetu would have just recently been conceived when Scar destroyed the Guard and, therefore, would most likely have been born during Scar’s reign, which TLK almost entirely skips over.

Mheetu Died of Sickness Or Starvation

            The above theories would explain why Mheetu isn’t in the beginning of TLK but they don’t really cover why he isn’t there at the end. One possible explanation is that Mheetu died of sickness or starvation during Scar’s reign. If he was weak or really young while Scar was on the throne then the scarcity of food and water might have been too much for him. It’s hard to say which would be more likely to kill him because malnutrition weakens the immune system but it can also, obviously, lead to starvation. The fact that he was younger may account for why he would die and Nala would live in this case.  

Young cubs like Mheetu need mother’s milk with a certain percentage of fat and protein and later require a high-protein diet of meat (about 20% of their body weight per day), like their adult counterparts. Since Sarafina was also malnourished during Scar’s reign she probably wouldn’t be able to provide the highest-quality milk, which would likely stunt Mheetu’s development from the start. Nala probably got high-quality milk and this would give her a leg up on her little brother. It would also have been unlikely for Mheetu to receive proper nutrition after he was weaned off of milk either so he likely would have been very weak and prone to sickness.

Mheetu Was Murdered

            Yet another possibility is that Mheetu was killed during Scar’s reign as a show of force or an attempt to get rid of potential threats to his authority. It’s not uncommon in the wild for lions to kill the existing cubs when they take over a pride so that only their offspring will be in the pride but what if Scar simply wanted to make an example out of Mheetu? In the cut scene from TLK that I mentioned earlier, Scar says that he doesn’t want or need the Pridelanders’ respect. All he cares about is their obedience so it would be characteristic of him to either kill Mheetu himself or have the hyenas kill him to send a message to the rest of the pride. I would argue that it would be more likely for him to order the hyenas to kill Mheetu, as evidenced by the fact that he had them chase after Simba instead of killing the cub himself. Scar might also have seen Mheetu as a possible threat. If Mheetu grew up and got strong he might try to overthrow Scar and that would probably be enough cause for Scar to kill him or have him killed. 

            What do you think? Let me know in the comments!