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Chicago Bulls Rumor: ‘Space Jam 2’ Could Feature LeBron James

Paul Steeno|

Some movies are so good that they don’t need a sequel.

Apparently, Space Jam, featuring former Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters, doesn’t fall in this category.

In a question and answer session recently on Twitter, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James received a question about the likelihood of him starring in a sequel to Space Jam.

Last Wednesday, USA Today Sports reported an announcement by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. of a completed partnership with James. Shortly after this deal, Capital New York reporter Alex Weprin pointed out that Warner Bros. Entertainment also had renewed trademarks for Space Jam the previous month. The timing of the two events caused many to speculate that a sequel was inevitable.

Space Jam was a Warner Bros. production directed by Joe Pytka that debuted on November 15, 1996. It grossed over $90 million in the United States and over $230 million internationally. It remains the highest-grossing basketball movie of all-time.

Renowned film critic Roger Ebert rated Space Jam as a 3.5/4 calling it a “happy marriage of good ideas — three films for the price of one, giving us a comic treatment of the career adventures of Michael Jordan, crossed with a Looney Tunes cartoon and some showbiz warfare.”

IMDb gave Space Jam a respectable 6.2/10 rating, while Rotten Tomatoes was less lenient in its review, with only 35 percent of professional critics giving this film a positive review.

There has been a mixed reaction from fans on the rumored Space Jam sequel. Unsurprisingly, Bulls purists expressed outrage that a rival player could be cast in a role that originally belonged to Jordan.

However, other fans endorsed the idea simply because they were curious how a Space Jam featuring James would go down. YouTube user STG provided a compelling argument for the creation of a sequel.

When sequel rumors began to surface four years ago, YouTube user College Humor put a comedic spin on what a sequel starring James could look like.

From a financial standpoint, Warner Bros. plan to create a Space Jam sequel is pure genius. People will endlessly complain about how bad the movie will be, yet they will still flock to the movie theaters to see if their predictions were right. Spinoffs of popular originals have performed well in the past. Despicable Me 2 grossed $914.5 million while Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen brought in $836.3 million. Grown Ups 2 grossed $247 million on an $80 million budget despite receiving a 7 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Warner Bros. knows that people will watch Space Jam 2 regardless of the quality of the movie. Lebron is in it. That is controversial, thus, people will watch it.

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The most intriguing aspect of a potential sequel is the plot. The original Space Jam ends when the Monstars returned their talents to the NBA players and became diminutive once again. They were then allowed to live in “Toon Land” with the Looney Tunes. The viewer finishes the movie assuming that a good relationship exists between the Monstars and the Looney Tunes. The Warmer Bros. script writers need to create new conflict to set up a suitable plot for the second movie.

Will the second movie follow a similar storyline? Will Swackhammer, the boss the Monstars shot into outer space at the end of the original, return to “Toon Land”, brainwash his former Monstar minions and then embark on a campaign to steal the talent of the current NBA players so that the Monstars can rematch the Looney Tunes in basketball? How will James arrive in “Toon Land”? Will it be through a golf hole like Jordan, or in some other way? Although the means to the end may differ slightly, the sequel will likely end in a similar fashion.

It is hard to envision a sequel that doesn’t involve some variation of the Looney Tunes and James facing off against the Monstars in a do-or-die basketball game. The problem: it was awesome the first time, but now that we see it again and can predict everything that is going to happen, it will lose its appeal.

This is the problem with the proposed sequel. The ending of Space Jam doesn’t present a clear-cut starting point for a sequel without rehashing everything that happened in the original. It will be tough to satisfy audiences with the sequel if it’s just a recreation of the events of Space Jam with James replacing Jordan.

Space Jam was successful largely because of its novelty. It was the first film to combine the talent of the NBA’s best players with the timeless humor of the Looney Tunes characters. Without this novelty, Space Jam 2 will lose the charm of the original and ultimately end up as a bust.

James has a long way to go before he matches the on-court accomplishments of Jordan. If Space Jam 2 rehashes the plotline of the original, he will have a long way to go before he catches up to Jordan’s success on the big screen as well.

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