Newly released Space Jam 2 movie posters reveal the best look yet at the villainous Goon Squad. Over twenty years after Michael Jordan displayed his movie star charisma in the original Space Jam, LeBron James will try to establish his own legacy with the long-awaited sequel, co-starring the Looney Tunes.
James’ Space Jam: A New Legacy does of course have a lot in common with the original movie, including the presence of the Looney Tunes as well as an overall basketball theme. But at the same time there are quite a few points that distinguish James’ Space Jam from Jordan’s. For one, James’ movie brings in a Matrix-like VR element as the basketball star finds himself getting sucked into Warner Bros.' Serververse where he encounters famous WB characters from the past. Secondly, James’ movie features more of a family theme as it involves the NBA legend trying to save his tech-savvy son from an evil AI played by Don Cheadle (where as the original Space Jam saw Jordan merely trying to save himself from becoming an attraction in an alien amusement park).
The original Space Jam of course featured Jordan, the Tune Squad and ringer Bill Murray squaring off against a team of alien Monstars who’d stolen the skills of various real-life NBA players. Space Jam 2 does not include the Monstars, but it does have a bad guy team called the Goon Squad that James and his teammates must defeat. A digitized basketball gang created by Cheadle, the Goon Squad is based on and voiced by real stars from the NBA and WNBA. A just-released series of Space Jam: A New Legacy posters gives fans their best look yet at the team James and friends will have to defeat in order to overcome Cheadle and his villainous plans. See the posters in the space below:
James’ own Los Angeles Lakers teammate Anthony Davis heads up the roster of basketball stars lending their voices to the Goon Squad. Named The Brow (in honor of Davis’ famous unibrow), the character is a half-human/half-bird. Indeed the half-human/half-animal theme continues with some of the other Goon Squad members. Los Angeles Sparks player Nneka Ogwumike is the half-spider Arachnneka, while the Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi is the half-snake White Mamba (the name incidentally is also a tribute to the late Kobe Bryant who of course had the nickname Black Mamba). Then there’s Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard as Chronos, who is a cyborg. Finally, there’s Golden State Warriors player Klay Thompson as Wet-Fire, who has attributes borrowed from comic book characters Hydro-Man and The Human Torch.
The designs of the new Goon Squad characters may not be quite as wacky as the designs of the original Monstars, but that’s probably a good thing given Space Jam 2’s more sophisticated computer animation. Indeed, if the posters above are any indication, things could get pretty intense in the final basketball showdown between James and the Tunes and the computer-generated Goon Squad. Of course, it’s also possible that the technological upgrade proves to be a bad thing. All the shiny computer effects may just end up making fans wish Space Jam 2 were a little more low-tech and charming like the first movie.
Source: Space Jam: A New Legacy/Twitter
