Space Jam: A New Legacy is set to be released, both in theaters and on HBO Max, in just over two months. It's almost unbelievable, considering just how long people have been trying to make this movie happen that it is almost here. And the sequel to Space Jam will almost certainly open on the current schedule, as the movie just completed the post-production process, meaning that the movie is now ready to be released.
The news that Space Jam: A New Legacy is officially done came via a pair of animators at Industrial Light & Magic. Kevin Martel, the Animation Supervisor on the film announced over the weekend that the animation process is done. This was followed by another ILM animator, Shawn Kelly, who praised both the film, and Martel. Check out the tweets below.
Considering just how long people have been pulling for a Space Jam 2, it's more than a little incredible that we're actually only two months away from the film being real. Fans have wanted to see Lebron James play basketball with Looney Tunes, in the way that Michael Jordan did once upon a time, for years. For a long time it seemed that the entire idea was just a fan pipe dream, but then it became clear that Lebron James himself really did want to make the movie, and slowly but surely, over a period of years, it became a real project.
Lebron James is perhaps the first basketball player since Michael Jordan to be viewed in the same way. He's not simply a great player, but he's been able to use his skill and celebrity to make himself a cultural phenomenon. People who don't case about the sport of basketball know James, and as such there's an audience for this movie simply because he's in it.
And while the movie still took quite some time to actually get in front of cameras, it finally did, and now here we are. Of course, it turns out that Space Jam: A New Legacy will be something more than just a basketball movie. While it will still be that, the trailers have shown us that movie will include a lot more than NBA players and WB cartoon characters. A multitude of characters from other brands and franchises will also be included.
A sequel coming out 25 years after the original film, especially when the original film was little more than a feature length shoe commercial, is certainly impressive in its own way. But it also means there are some serious fans of this franchise who are going to be very happy to see the sequel when it finally does happen. There was a long time where it looked like Space Jam 2 would be one of those movies that fell in development hell never to find a way out.
