LeBron James reveals the first story details for Space Jam: A New Legacy. Released in 1996, the original Space Jam teamed Bugs Bunny and other classic Looney Tunes characters with NBA legend Michael Jordan in a live-action/animation hybrid movie that went on to gross $230 million at the box office.
Twenty-five years after that classic film brought together the NBA and Looney Tunes, current Lakers superstar James is revisiting the concept for the sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy. Recently, a Warner Bros. panel at CCXP gave fans their first glimpse of what James’ animated teammate Bugs Bunny will look like in the new movie. James also recently previewed the new jerseys for the updated Tune Squad, revealing that he’ll wear number 6 in the movie instead of his current Lakers jersey number 23.
As a further tease for Space Jam: A New Legacy, James just revealed some details about the movie’s story. Appearing on the YouTube show Road Trippin’, the star adamantly reiterated that the movie is called Space Jam: A New Legacy and not Space Jam 2. He said, “There will be a basketball game, I'll say that. And there will be some people that are a little out of this world that we're competing against." In addition to that vague tease, James got into the movie’s themes, revealing that it has a lot to do with fathers and sons:
"But it's more of a family movie. It's a parenting movie between me and my son, and me trying to demand my son to do something because I was taught that way growing up. Demand my son to play basketball. 'This is what you're gonna do, this is how you're gonna do it.' And me as a parent not listening to my son and not believing in what my son is actually great at. It's a tackling between me being a parent and supporting my son, and my son basically turning off at some point and me trying to regain that trust throughout the movie. Along with the great Bugs Bunny, and Lola, and Taz, and Tweety. All of them."
The first Space Jam of course also featured a pivotal basketball game between Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes (and eventual ringer Bill Murray) and a crew of monsters who’d absorbed the talents of various NBA players. But in the new movie, instead of James trying to save the world, he’s trying to find his son Bronny (Ceyair J. Wright) while going up against the villainous AI-G, played by Don Cheadle. The movie’s cast also includes Sonequa Martin-Green plus an array of NBA and WNBA players including Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis, Chris Paul and Diana Taurasi.
Written by Ryan Coogler and Sev Ohanian, the new story sounds like it has more of a grounded human element to it than the first Space Jam, which was almost purely about wacky hijinks with very little in the way of genuine feeling. It will be interesting to see how this more down-to-earth element plays out in the new movie, as James attempts to match Jordan as an on-screen presence the same way he’s matched him as a champion on the basketball court. Jordan of course wasn’t taxed very hard acting-wise by the first Space Jam, while the father-son element of Space Jam: A New Legacy may give James more of a challenge when it comes to actual emoting. It remains to be seen whether this added father-son dynamic makes the second Space Jam better than the first, or simply gets in the way of the fun.
Source: Road Trippin’/YouTube
