In Disney’s 2016 film The Jungle Book, the giant ape who rules the Bandar-log is King Louie.
King Louie appears as a gigantic Gigantopithecus, an extinct ape species, rather than as the orangutan used in Disney’s 1967 animated film. He lives in an ancient temple and tries to persuade Mowgli to reveal how humans make fire. The character’s size and setting give the encounter a more imposing, mythic tone.
The 2016 film’s King Louie is voiced by Christopher Walken, who also sings “I Wan’na Be Like You.” The song is carried over from the 1967 film, but the scene, character design, and dramatic stakes are substantially different.
Kipling’s original books do not contain King Louie. They do include the Bandar-log, a group of monkeys whom the other jungle animals distrust. Disney created King Louie for the animated film and retained him in the later adaptation, even though orangutans are not native to the Indian setting associated with Kipling’s stories.