The internet has a tendency to speculate with little to no information. Just because LeBron James has signed a deal to work with Warner Bros. doesn’t mean that there is a plan to put together a Space Jam 2. Unless it does. It turns out that not only would LeBron be willing to do a sequel to Space Jam, he actually wants to.
The Hollywood Reporter has the details on LeBron's recent appearance on Today where he was specifically asked about his interest in starring in the movie with the Looney Tunes. Whereas most people talking about a project so early in development would dance around the question, James, who, to be fair, is new to the whole Hollywood thing, is fairly forthright. He says:
We hope so. We're definitely missing Bugs and Daffy and Tasmanian Devil and every last one of them, so hopefully we can do some great things.
But does Space Jam 2 qualify as "great things?" The Looney Tunes themselves will always be great, and James is obviously a fan, but you’d be hard pressed to find somebody who considers Space Jam to be their finest hour. In the end, putting James in a movie with Bugs and Daffy that is anything other than Space Jam 2 is still going to be viewed as a "spiritual sequel," so at that point you might as well just go ahead and make the movie.
The idea of LeBron James starring in a sequel to the live-action/animation/Nike commercial hybrid was not new when it jumped to the forefront of the internet’s consciousness a few weeks back. But with the LeBron/WB deal coming on the heels of his headline-making turn in Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck, the idea that James could carry a movie on his own became a lot more plausible.
Nevermind that nobody asked if Michael Jordan could carry a movie before starring in the original Space Jam. Spoiler alert: he couldn’t. James at least has shown he’s got solid comic timing, so assuming he can act to a green screen, it’s entirely possible he could pull it off. Of course, the humor in Trainwreck was significantly more adult, so this would be a change of pace in more ways than one.
While nobody on the Warner Bros. side of the equation has confirmed a desire to make a Space Jam 2, with LeBron James on board we can all pretty much guess that it's on a list of potential projects someplace in Burbank. Are you excited for another Looney Tunes basketball movie, or would you rather see a new idea?
