By now, everyone has spent hours pouring over every detail of the first Space Jam film right? Just me? Alllll-righty then. Here’s a trailer for the sequel film, Space Jam: A New Legacy, just for you!
Welcome to the Space Jam. It appears that this new film is more about LeBron trying to save his son rather than save the universe (though that seems to be the plot by the end of the trailer), and everyone is here for it. We got a sample of the film style when the first images came out earlier this year, but now we get to see King James and the Tune Squad back in action!
Plenty of people have already commented that this seems to have a very Ready Player One vibe with characters from all over the Warner Bros “Serververse” showing up to watch the big game of The Tune Squad Vs The Goon Squad. They aren’t wrong on the comparison as some genuinely surprising things can be found in the trailer.
Here are a few below (and I mean few compared to the amount that is in the trailer itself).
Alrighty, first we get a glimpse at our new Tune Squad. This time we get one of my favorite characters, the big red monster, Gossamer, in sneakers joining the team. Why he didn’t play in the original, I have absolutely no idea. No Petunia Pig though? Babs Bunny? The Warner Sister Dot? I know the well of female Looney Tunes characters is pretty shallow, but a bit of effort wouldn’t be too hard. Moving on…
As LeBron flies through space (jam), we get a peek at a few worlds in Don Cheadle’s Serververse including the worlds of Game Of Thrones, Maltese Falcon, Batman, and Wizard Of Oz. It looks like the Batman world is Gotham and Metropolis. I am sure someone that is more well-versed in comics will educate me in the comments on my accuracy
These three shots are of locations LeBron was sent and from what can be read, we see Albuquerque, Neptune, Mars, Emerald City, Themyscira, and surprisingly Thundera, home of the THUNDERCATS!
Now we get to the meat of the trailer with what seems to be the “Big Game.” There is so much to unpack here. As mentioned earlier, it seems everyone is here for the match. From Jabberjaw to the Flintstones to King Kong and others, they all seem to be racing to (presumably) watch the game.
Everyone is gathered, and we get some good shots of some expected and some truly unexpected WB adjacent characters.
Let’s take a peek at this shot of LeBron doing his basketball thing. We can see the Burgess Meredith Batman ’66 Penguin standing next to the Danny DeVito Batman Returns Penguin, with The Mask in between them. Great, but expected references. Even Peter Potamus is there up in the sky to see if anyone got that thing he sent them.
This is the shot that caught my attention and made me share it with every friend I have in multiple discords, causing my partner to throw their headphones on to play more Story Of Seasons while they try to tune out my obsessive excited rambling.
Here we see some White Walkers from the Games Of Throne series, some western-style varmints, and on the right is the shocker. Droogs from A Clockwork Orange and a Warboy from Mad Max next to them! I think the prominence of the gang of Droogs is what surprises me. They aren’t exactly pop culture icons that kids would get, and Kubrick’s movie is highly controversial in what it portrays (more than the book by Anthony Burgess, I would say), so putting them courtside seems interesting. There are also a few shots of other villains like Pennywise and G.O.O.N.S from Batman ’66 that made me smile.
Seeing Cheetara and Lion-O (just out of frame) in the top right corner was confirmation that they at least wanted to have some kind of physical (digital) representation for the Thundercats. Where’s Snarf? I hope Snarf plays a key role by the end of the film.
Here is a dragon from Game Of Thrones, though at first glance I thought it was Draco from Dragonheart. I am not too disappointed, as I am holding out hope to see Gremlins or Bob The Goon from Batman.
The only criticism I have is the tone of the trailer and the remix/remake of the Space Jam theme. It feels like it wants to be epic and dramatic when this is a super silly nostalgia bomb film.
I wish I had better skills to share with you, folks, as there are so many deep WB cuts that will be a joy to find when the film hits theaters and HBO Max.
Space Jam: A New Legacy drops in theater and on HBO Max on July 16, 2021.
