The first trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy has been released and it is unsurprisingly packed full of cameos and Easter eggs. What is unexpected, however, is that the Easter eggs make reference to a whole host of Warner Bros. properties and not just Looney Tunes.
The first Space Jam movie was born of a series of commercials for Nike athletic shoes teaming basketball legend Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny in 1992. Their surprising popularity combined with a renaissance at Warner Bros. Animation, led to the idea of a feature length film based around Jordan having to lead the classic Looney Tunes characters to victory in a basketball match. While critically panned, the quirky comedy proved popular with kids and Looney Tunes fans and is considered a cult classic today.
It remains to be seen if Space Jam 2 can recapture the magic of the original, but Warner Bros. isn’t relying exclusively on the same formula as before. While the movie is still built around the base concept of a basketball star being pulled into the world of cartoons, a number of cinematic realities will come into play. Here’s a breakdown of all the major players and settings revealed in the first trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy.
LeBron James
Popularly known as “King James,” LeBron James is one of the most accomplished professional athletes in history and the only basketball player to win the NBA championship as part of three separate franchises. The hero of Space Jam: A New Legacy, James finds himself in for the game of his life as he must lead the Tune Squad to victory to free his son from the Server-verse, a digital realm seemingly made up of nearly every fictional reality imaginable.
Al-G Rhythm
Played by Don Cheadle, Al-G Rhythm is the self-described king of the Server-verse and the main villain of Space Jam 2. It is Al-G Rhythm who abducts LeBron James’s son, Don, and banishes Lebron to the Tune World, after challenging him to a game of basketball to free Don from whatever sinister end Rhythm has in mind for the aspiring video game designer.
Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian
Easily the most popular and well-known of the Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny is the first to offer LeBron James his assistance in rescuing his son. While Marvin the Martian doesn’t appear directly in the Space Jam 2 trailer, Bugs Bunny is shown to be wearing Marvin’s signature helmet as he and LeBron James fly what appears to be Marvin’s flying saucer around the various worlds making up the Server-Verse.
The Worlds Of the Server-Verse, Including DC Comics
The trailer shows off a number of worlds based on various Warner Bros. properties besides the Tune World. The teleporter that sends LeBron James to Tune World includes settings for Orbit City (the home of The Jetsons), Hogwarts, Gotham, Westeros from Game of Thrones, Bedrock and the Amazon homeland Themyscira, as well as the planets Neptune, Saturn, and Mars. LeBron also seems to fall past the land of Oz and Westeros, right before he meets Al-G Rhythm. Later, Bugs and Lebron fly past a number of worlds in a space ship, including a black-and-white world inspired by film noir classics like The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, and what appears to be the world of DC Comics, with half the planet taken up by an enterally sunny Metropolis and the other half being an eternally dark Gotham City.
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
Perhaps the most famous of Warner Bros.’ many pairings of a sensible straight man with a screwball, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck have appeared in hundreds of cartoons as a team and as solo acts. Porky doesn’t have a speaking role in the Space Jam 2 trailer but does appear as part of the Tune Squad. Daffy has a short speaking part in the trailer and gets to demonstrate the flexibility of his bill on two separate occasions.
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
First paired together in the 1949 short “Fast and Furry-ous,” the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote are two of the most endearing Looney Tunes. The two are profiled on the computer screen listing all the various Looney Tunes who were part of the original Tune Squad and are later seen among the characters attending the team’s first practice session.
Lola Bunny
Introduced into the Looney Tunes cast by the first Space Jam, Lola Bunny will be a changed woman in A New Legacy. The movie will reportedly establish that Lola sought a different life for herself as something besides Bugs Bunny’s love interest and that she’s spent the last few years living among the Amazons of Wonder Woman’s Themyscira.
Granny
Emma “Granny” Webster is best known as the owner of Tweety and Sylvester, but she made her first appearance in 1937’s Little Red Walking Hood as the deceptively tough grandmother of Little Red Riding Hood. Granny is in similarly fine form in the Space Jam 2 trailer, using her walker like a set of gymnast bars before laying the smackdown on one of the Goon Squad.
Foghorn Leghorn
First appearing in the 1946 short “Walky Talky Hawky,” the Southern-fried Foghorn Leghorn is infamous for his inability to stop talking once he’s started. Ironically, he doesn’t get the chance to speak in the Space Jam 2 trailer, only making an appearance alongside the rest of the Tune Squad at their first practice.
Gossamer
A giant red monster said to be “just hair and sneakers,” Gossamer built up a surprising following despite only appearing in two of the classic Looney Tunes shorts and not earning a name until his appearance in a 1980 Duck Dodgers special. Portrayed as an innocent child who Daffy Duck mentored in the 2011 Looney Tunes Show, Gossamer seems to be back to being his usual hulking self as part of the Tune Squad.
Sylvester and Tweety
Sylvester the Cat has played the antagonist to many animated animals but has been most famously paired with Tweety (or Tweety Pie) in over 40 animated shorts during the Golden Age of animation. The cat and bird team are once again part of the Tune Squad and several versions of Tweety can briefly be seen flying around LeBron James’ head in the Space Jam 2 trailer after he suffers a head injury.
Speedy Gonzales
A later addition to the Looney Tunes roster, first appearing in 1955, Speedy Gonzales bills himself as the fastest mouse in all of Mexico. This raises the question of whether or not there is a faster mouse elsewhere in the world, but Speedy was fast enough to race the Road Runner to a tie in the 1965 short “The Wild Chase.” Speedy will be voiced by comedian Gabriel Iglesias but does not have a speaking part in the Space Jam 2 trailer.
Elmer Fudd
The ultimate refinement of a character originally dubbed Egghead, Elmer Fudd has been a continual nemesis of both Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, most frequently in the role of a vegetarian outdoorsman who only hunts for the sport of it. Elmer is briefly seen in the Space Jam 2 trailer in his traditional hunting togs at the Tune Squad’s first practice but is later seen in more traditional athletic gear.
Yosemite Sam
Originally appearing as a hot-tempered outlaw who claimed to be “the fastest gun north, south, east and west of the Pecos,” Yosemite Sam went on to appear in a variety of guises plaguing Bugs Bunny, including a knight, a pirate and a corrupt politician. Sam is back to his cowboy roots in the trailer for Space Jam 2 and has a fun moment where he misinterprets Daffy Duck’s request that he show the rest of the Looney Tunes how to shoot a basketball.
Many WB Animation and Hanna-Barbera Characters
Tune World seems to be home to more cartoon characters than just the Looney Toons. One scene in the Space Jam 2 trailer shows the Iron Giant almost stepping on the Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo. The trailer then reveals a large number of Hanna-Barbera characters fleeing some unseen danger, including Yogi Bear and his friend Boo-Boo, Jabberjaw, Magilla Gorilla and Captain Caveman. Fred Flintstone can also be heard exclaiming “Yabba Dabba Doo,” as he speeds past the other characters in his foot-powered car and daringly picks up Bam-Bam Rubble while steering the car with his other hand.
Cameos From Other Warner Bros. Worlds
A number of characters from various Warner Bros. productions can be seen in the crowd scenes of Space Jam 2. King Kong, Pennywise from It, the Mysteries Inc. gang from Scooby-Doo, Cheetara from Thundercats, Khal Drogo and the Night King from Game of Thrones, one of the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz and one of the Agents from The Matrix can all be seen at some point during the trailer. Perhaps the oddest cameo of all is an appearance by Alex DeLarge and the rest of his droogs from A Clockwork Orange.
Key Release Dates
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Release Date:2021-07-16
