Space Jam 2: release date, trailer, images, cast, plot
25 years after the original, LeBron James will join Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes crew in Space Jam: A New Legacy to meet the Goon Squad on the court.
LeBron James is following in Michael Jordan’s footsteps once again, now going from basketball phenom to potential A-list movie star. He was offered the opportunity to continue the Space Jam franchise 15 years ago, but turned it down "I didn't think I was ready to do anything of that magnitude."
Rumors of a sequel to the iconic Space Jam have been swirling since 2012 and with LeBron often taking to social media to help fuel them. He finally signed on to the project in 2015 according to Entertainment Weekly and put an end to rumors in February. He told EW "It's one of the biggest games, if not the biggest game, I've ever played in. The Goon Squad is probably the best team ever assembled in basketball history."
What is the plot of Space Jam 2?
In the modern-day version of Space Jam LeBron struggles to relate to his son Dom, who prefers to create online games to playing the real thing. When an AI G Rhythm, played by Don Cheadle, notices Dom’s tech skills he sucks the father-son duo into the Warner 3000 entertainment “Server-verse”. There he holds Dom hostage in order to steal LeBron’s social media followers.
As in the original, it will come down to a basketball game to settle things. LeBron James must bring the Looney Tunes squad back together to defeat the Goon Squad.
Who are the characters?
LeBron James will play himself, of course, and his son Dom will be played by Cedric Joe. LeBron’s onscreen wife Kamiyah will be played by Star Trek Discovery actress Sonequa Martin-Green. The couple’s other two children will be Ceyair Wright as older son Darius, Harper Leigh Alexander as daughter Xosha.
To acquaint a new generation of children to the Looney Tunes cast of characters, Warners Bros will be bringing the whole crew along with old-time fan favorites Bugs, Lola Bunny, Daffy Duck and Tweety.
Lola Bunny changed with the times
Director Malcolm D. Lee hadn’t watched Space Jam until he saw it for the first time in 2019, and one of the characters just wasn’t right for this day and age for him. Since the first Space Jam Movie social norms have changed and coming on the heels of the MeToo movement the director felt the appearance of "Lola [Bunny] was very sexualized, like Betty Boop mixed with Jessica Rabbit," he told Entertainment Weekly.
"Lola was not politically correct.... This is a kids' movie, why is she in a crop top? It just felt unnecessary, but at the same time there's a long history of that in cartoons."
However his makeover of Lola wasn’t very well received by netizens with people taking to Twitter to express their disagreement with the change. However for Lee he says "This is 2021. It's important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters."
Sneak peek at the new movie
For a preview of what to expect in the new movie Entertainment Weekly published a preview and a gallery of photos from the upcoming movie Space Jam: A New Legacy.
When will Space Jam: A New Legacy be available?
Space Jam: A New Legacy will be one of the first movies to welcome audiences back to theaters this summer premiering on 16 July. It will simultaneously be released in theaters and stream on HBO Max.