King Louie

King Louie is a fictional character introduced in Walt Disney's animated musical film The Jungle Book. He is a Bornean orangutan who leads other jungle primates, and wants to become more human-like by gaining knowledge of fire from Mowgli. King Louie is an original character not featured in Rudyard Kipling's original works. The filmmakers originally considered Louis Armstrong for the role, but fearing the controversy that might result from casting a black person as an ape or a monkey, they instead chose Italian American and fellow New Orleans native Louis Prima. Prima considered playing King Louie as one of the highlights of his career, and felt he had become "immortal" thanks to Walt Disney and the entire studio. King Louie was barred from appearing in Disney productions following a legal dispute with Prima's widow, Gia Maione, in 2002. After Maione died in 2013, the dispute ended and Louie was allowed to appear in the 2016 film, The Jungle Book, where he was voiced by Christopher Walken, and changed to a Gigantopithecus.