Trivia / Space Jam: A New Legacy

• Acting for Two:
  • On top of appearing in the film as themselves, Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Diana Taurasi, and Nneka Ogweumike also voice their respective Goon Squad counterparts.
  • Jeff Bergman plays Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Fred Flintstone, and Yogi Bear.
  • Eric Bauza voices Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd and Marvin the Martian.
  • For Rick and Morty’s cameo, Justin Roiland voices the titular characters.
• Ascended Meme: Big Chungus is referenced when Bugs meets LeBron for the first time. Bugs uses the pose to (once again) mimic Elmer (despite Elmer not being fat in the movie or, well, in any media since 1942 when the "fat Elmer" experiment was deemed a failure and axed after just 4 episodes in the original theatrical run).
• Banned in China: The film has been denied a release in China. Why it is denied is unclear.
• Billing Displacement: The end credits puts Eric Bauza behind Zendaya and Gabriel Iglesias. The latter very clearly has a smaller part, only voicing the secondary role of Speedy Gonzales. The former voices Lola Bunny, who's about tied with Daffy Duck for the second most prominent Looney Tune here. But the fact that Bauza also played Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, and Marvin the Martian should arguably put his name over hers. The opening credits actually do bill them that way after the principle live action actors and Jeff Bergman, though Zendaya also gets the prestigious And Starring credit there.
• Box Office Bomb: $150 million budget, $70 million domestic gross, $162 million worldwide gross. The movie's simultaneous release on HBO Max, as well as the Chinese ban and the fact that many people were still wary of attending theaters during the COVID-19 Pandemic, cut off its legs.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: While most of the Looney Tunes characters keep their regular voice actors, Lola Bunny and Speedy Gonzales are voiced by Zendaya and Gabriel Iglesias, respectively. Presumably, their celebrity status is the reason for the Billing Displacement.
  • Averted with Lola in some foreign dubs like Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Italian and Japanese. Played straight in others like European Spanish and European French.
  • Equally averted with Speedy in... pretty much every other dub.
• Channel Hop: Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic (as well as some other factors), the film (just like the rest of Warner Bros.' movies of 2021) had a limited release on their parent company's streaming service HBO Max at the same time as its theatrical release.
• Character Outlives Actor: Both June Foray and Greg Burson, who voiced Granny and Foghorn Leghorn (in a handful of scenes) respectively in the original film, passed away (in 2017 and 2008 respectively), though both had long since been replaced in other Looney Tunes projects.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: IMDB claimed that the Warner siblings make voiced cameos in the film, when in the actual film, their cameos are unvoiced.
• Creator Backlash: An artist for the movie, Dave Alvarez (who also draws many Looney Tunes comic books currently), did plenty of work on the movie's character designs and backgrounds. He went uncredited in the movie, which was a deeply upsetting experience for him and his family. He has since been critical and disdainful of the movie. An online campaign supporting him began when the story was picked up by the media.
  • On July 30, 2021, the film finally credited most of the artists and collaborators on Twitter. This still left a bitter taste on fans’ mouths, who continue to clamor for them to be added to the actual movie credits for the home release.
  • Joe Pytka, the director for the first Space Jam, ripped into the new one, finding that LeBron's story lacked the Reality Subtext that Michael Jordan's did, felt the various celebrities were unmemorable compared to the original's cameos (i.e. Bill Murray), thought Bugs Bunny was watered down, and admitted that he found it painful to watch through in over five sittings just to finish it.
  • Certainly downplayed, but Gabriel Iglesias was disappointed to learn he was given the role of Speedy as Stunt Casting and not on the strength of his abilities, and tried to audition for additional roles as soon as he found out.
  • If the multiple jokes made about it in the actual series are any indication, Dan Harmon is not a fan of Rick and Morty's appearance in the film, so much so that he had the show's versions kill the movie versions, who apparently begged for death.
• Exiled from Continuity: According to Deadline, Pepé Le Pew was ultimately excised from this movie and other future Looney Tunes projects in the wake of a New York Times editorial calling Pepé a "rapist". A scene that was supposedly partially filmed ended up being removed.
• Early Draft Tie-In:
  • Before the teaser dropped, early promotional material featured Penelope Pussycat as part of the TuneSquad as seen in the first look trailer from December 14th, 2020. This even extends to merchandise where she's featured wearing the new TuneSquad outfit. Despite existing merchandise and official artwork, including a three-panel cameo in the Comic-Book Adaptation, Penelope never appears in the actual movie.
  • Unlike Penelope, Marvin the Martian managed to appear in tons of promotional material including appearing in a McDonald's commercial for Happy Meal Toys promoting the movie. While Marvin does appear in this movie, he is never seen joining the TuneSquad or wearing the new TuneSquad outfits.
• Follow the Leader: Seeing all those WarnerMedia properties in the same motion picture doesn't go by without bringing Ralph Breaks the Internet and Ready Player One to mind.
• Invisible Advertising: Warner Bros. notably didn't release marketing material of any kind, e.g. poster, trailer or footage, until three months before its July 2021 release date. Similarly to Godzilla vs. Kong, this probably had a lot to do with complications arising from COVID-19.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released a set of twelve toys of the Tune Squad in their Happy Meals.
• The Original Darrin:
  • After having been replaced by Eric Bauza for Looney Tunes Cartoons, Jeff Bergman and Bob Bergen both respectively return as Bugs Bunny and Tweety.
  • Jeff Bergman also returns to voice Yosemite Sam for the first time since the early 1990s after being replaced by various voice actors such as Maurice LaMarche and Fred Tatasciore.
  • In the European Portuguese dub, due to the departure of Carlos Freixo and Paulo Oom from PTSDI Media, their characters have since been voiced by other voice actors, notably Ricardo Monteiro (Bugs), Pedro Bargado (Daffy), Rui Quintas (Sylvester), Peter Michael (Foghorn and Marvin) and Pedro Pernas (Elmer). As this film is dubbed in a different studio (On Air) where both are active at, it allowed both voice actors to reprise their roles.
    • Oddly enough, in the same dub, although Paula Fonseca (Tweety) and Isabel Ribas (Granny) are still active at PTSDI Media (in fact, Isabel is the current voice of Daisy Duck for that studio), both have been replaced by André Raimundo and Carla Mendes since New Looney Tunes. Similar to the case above, the original actors were brought back for this movie.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Zendaya replaces Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny, which wasn't announced until the day the trailer dropped. (Zendaya previously worked with LeBron James on Smallfoot, which was also from Warner Bros.)
  • Gabriel Iglesias replaces Eric Bauza as Speedy Gonzales.
  • Eric Bauza voices Porky Pig in this film, instead of his current regular voice actor, Bob Bergen.
  • From the original film:
    • Jeff Bergman replaces Billy West as the voice of Bugs Bunny, and Bill Farmer as Sylvester and Yosemite Sam.
    • Eric Bauza replaces West as Elmer Fudd, Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Bob Bergen as Marvin the Martian and Porky Pig, and both Farmer and Greg Burson as Foghorn Leghorn.
    • Candi Milo replaces the late June Foray as Granny.
    • Fred Tatasciore replaces the aforementioned Dee Bradley Baker as Taz.
    • The only Looney Tunes character who doesn't have a different voice compared to the original is Tweety (voiced by Bob Bergen).
  • The many live-action Warner Bros characters spectating the big game ^note the 1960s and Tim Burton versions of the Batman characters, Agent Smith, modern Pennywise and Voldemort, as just a few specific examples, are played by extras, rather than their original actors (even if the original actors were still alive when the movie was being shot).
  • In the live show at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, Eric Bauza voices Bugs Bunny and Sylvester rather than Jeff Bergman.
  • Sequel-wise, the same goes, through in a less degree, with the Japanese dub, as Kouji Ishii, the current official dub voice of Yosemite Sam, will replace the late Daisuke Gōri with the same character. Also, Marvin the Martian's voice actor is replaced from Kazuhiro Nakata to Mitsuru Ogata^note And also becoming Marvin's official dub actor starting with this film., and oddly enough, Morty is voiced by Ryunosuke Yamaguchi, rather than his voice actor from the TV series, Keisuke Chiba, very likely since the latter being an unknown compared with the former.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, only Bugs, Lola, Yosemite Sam, Taz and Elmer retained their voice actors from the original film, as the rest were replaced. Likewise, since the movie was dubbed in Mexico, Rick and Morty are voiced by Mexican voice actors Mauricio Perez and Moises Ivan Mora (who also voices Speedy Gonzales in the film) rather than the Venezuelan-born Juan Guzman and Eder La Barrera respectively, because of the difference in countries.
  • In the European French dub, Lola is voiced by Celebrity Voice Actor Angèle, although such is partially justified since her original voice actress Odile Schmitt sadly passed away in 2020 due to a long illness.
    • Ditto for Patrick Guillemin, who passed away in 2011, although he has since been replaced by Emmanuel Garijo as the voice of Daffy Duck and Taz.
    • Albert Augier, who voiced Elmer in the original film, passed away in 2007, being replaced by Patrice Dozier, who already voiced him since 1997.
  • In the European Spanish dub, due to the retirement of Jordi Royo, Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn are now voiced by Francesc Belda.
    • Also in the same dub, Lola, who has been regularly voiced by Isabel Valls, was controversially recasted with Celebrity Voice Actor Lola Indigo.
  • In the European Portuguese dub, Porky and Speedy are now voiced by José Lobo rather than André Maia who has been living in Athens since 2009. Oddly enough, their current voices (from the second season of The Looney Tunes Show onwards) Peter Michael (Porky) and Tiago Retrê (Speedy) weren't considered to reprise their roles.
    • Oddly enough, while she reprises her role as Tweety from the first movie, Paula Fonseca doesn't reprise her role as Lola, being voiced instead by Carla García. Helena Montez (her current voice since the second season of The Looney Tunes Show) and Solange Santos (Zendaya's usual voice actor in Portuguese) weren't considered either.
    • Funnily enough, García voiced both her and Tweety on Baby Looney Tunes and the first season of The Looney Tunes Show.
  • In the Brazilian dub only Márcio Simões (Daffy and Sylvester), Manolo Rey (Porky), Sylvia Salustti (Tweety) and Adriana Torres (Lola) reprise their roles from the first movie. Aside from Granny, this is due to the other voice actors being retired or passed away. Rick and Morty also have whole new voices.
• The Other Marty:
  • Original casting reports for the movie suggested that Eric Bauza would reprise his role as Bugs from Looney Tunes Cartoons, and he provided the scratch track for Bugs. In the final cut, Jeff Bergman voices Bugs instead (though Bauza still voices Daffy and Marvin, and as mentioned above, taking over for Porky, Elmer and Foghorn).
  • Those same reports claimed that Bob Bergen would also reprise his role as Porky Pig, but the aforementioned Eric Bauza did the part for the film instead.
  • In the Deleted Scenes released on home media, Tweety is voiced by Eric Bauza instead of Bob Bergen and Elmer Fudd by Jeff Bergman instead of the aforementioned Eric.
  • It was also originally reported that Kath Soucie would be reprising her role as Lola from the original film until it was announced that Zendaya was taking over the role.
  • In the first trailer for the Latin American Spanish dub, Bugs was voiced by Arturo Mercado Jr., son of his classic voice actor Arturo Mercado and ironically the current voice of his Disney counterpart Mickey Mouse, with Daffy being voiced by Gerardo García. In later trailers and the film proper, we see Alfonso Obregón Inclán and Irwin Daayán reprising their roles.
• Production Posse: Michael B. Jordan is once again in a Ryan Coogler movie, albeit one where he's a producer and not a director.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Sylvester is voiced by Arturo Mercado Jr., son of his classic voice actor Arturo Mercado (who was also the one of Bugs, Daffy and Speedy), who reprised his role as Fred Flintstone for its cameo.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Foghorn Leghorn is voiced by Júlio Monjardim, the son of the character's classic voice actor, Mário Monjardim.
    • Also in the same dub, Granny is voiced by Marize Motta, the widow of Waldyr Sant'anna, who voiced Marvin the Martian on the first film as well as Porky Pig in one scene.
  • In the Japanese dub, Bugs Bunny and Morty Smith's voice actors, Kappei Yamaguchi and Ryunosuke Yamaguchi, are father and son in Real Life.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • Don Cheadle's Al-G Rhythm is portrayed in live-action, which was how Mr. Swackhammer was originally planned to be portrayed in the first film.
  • A non-Space Jam example: the Warner Siblings make a cameo in the film. Looney Tunes: Back in Action director Joe Dante originally wanted to include a cameo of the siblings in the "water tower" scene, but the idea was discarded for unknown reasons.
• Role Reprise:
  • Jeff Bergman is back as Bugs Bunny for this movie, though Eric Bauza still voices Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian. Bob Bergen, Porky Pig and Tweety's voice actor, returns to reprise at least the latter role, making him the only actor so far who worked on the first movie to return for this one.
  • Jeff also returns to voice Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Yogi Bear, and Fred Flintstone. Granny's current voice actress Candi Milo also voices her here.
  • Fred Tatasciore reprises Taz from Looney Tunes Cartoons. Jim Cummings also provides a few additional lines for Taz, albeit uncredited.
  • Rosario Dawson voices Wonder Woman for the sequence in Themyscira; she previously played the role in the DC Animated Movie Universe.
  • Justin Roiland as Rick and Morty.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, María Fernanda Morales reprises her role as Lola Bunny from the previous film. Also, Arturo Mercado reprises his role as Fred Flintstone from previous animated adaptations.
    • Also from the same dub, Alfonso Obregón Inclán (who voiced Bugs Bunny in the original film) has confirmed his return to dub Bugs Bunny in the movie. When the second trailer was released, Latin America fans were excited and happy to hear his iconic voice. Likewise, Irwin Daayán reprises his role as Daffy Duck after voicing him in The Looney Tunes Show.
  • The European Spanish dub counts with the role reprisals of Juan Antonio Bernal (Daffy), Alberto Mieza (Porky and Elmer), Alicia Laorden (Tweety and Granny), Marc Zanni (Marvin) and Paco Gázquez (Taz) from the first movie as well as Xavier Fernández (Bugs), Javier Viñas (Yosemite Sam) and Albert Trifol Segarra (Speedy) from newer media.
  • In the Hungarian dub, most of the Tunes have their post-2010 voices (introduced in The Looney Tunes Show), apart from Lola, Granny (recast with new voices) and Marvin, who has the same voice as in the original Space Jam rather than his usual cartoon one. Elmer Fudd is the only character still dubbed by his regular cartoon actor since the 90s (though he too had a different voice in the first film). Wonder Woman retains her dubbing actress from the DC Extended Universe, Yogi Bear likewise has his previous live-action voice, and Rick and Morty also have their usual dubbing actors.
  • In the Japanese dub, almost all the Looney Tunes' voice actors from both the previous film and other animated adaptations, save for Yosemite Sam and Marvin the Martian, reprise their roles. Also, Yuko Kaida reprise her role as Wonder Woman from the Japanese dubs of the DC Extended Universe films, while Yohei Tadano reprise his role as Rick Sanchez.
  • The same thing also happens in the European French dub, where all of the Looney Tunes, expect for Daffy, Lola, Taz and Elmer, reprise their roles from the original film. Emmanuel Garijo and Patrice Dozier also return as Daffy and Taz in the case of the former and Elmer in the case of the latter from previous Looney Tunes projects. Even Rick and Morty's voice actors from Belgium (Alain Eloy and Thibaut Delmotte respectively) reprise their roles. As for Wonder Woman, she's voiced by Ingrid Donnadieu, reprising her role from the DC Extended Universe.
  • The Brazilian dub keeps, along with the ones listed on The Other Darrin, just about everyone in the Looney Tunes works from The New '10s, such as Alexandre Moreno (Bugs), Fernando Mendonça (Elmer), Ronaldo Júlio (Yosemite Sam), Júlio Monjardim (Foghorn), Ricardo Juarez (Taz) and Guilherme Briggs (Marvin). For the cameos, Wonder Woman has the voice actress of Gal Gadot's version, and Austin Powers keeps the voice from The Spy Who Shagged Me (who is also in the movie as Al-G-Rhythm).
  • Same applies to the European Portuguese dub, where Paulo Oom (Bugs), Carla García (Lola, although only on Baby Looney Tunes and the first season of The Looney Tunes Show), Carlos Freixo (Daffy, Sylvester, Foghorn, Elmer and Marvin), Paula Fonseca (Tweety), Isabel Ribas (Granny) and Paulo B. (Taz and Yosemite Sam) all reprise their roles.
  • In the Italian dub, all the Looney Tunes' regular voice actors reprise their roles. Marco Mete (Daffy), Ilaria Latini (Tweety), Roberto Pedicini (Sylvester and Taz), Massimiliano Alto (Porky), and Monica Bertolotti (Granny) are all voicing their respective characters since the first Space Jam (and redubs of the original shorts in 1995). Davide Garbolino (Bugs), Deborah Ciccorelli (Lola), Marco Baroni (Elmer), Mino Caprio (Marvin), Pierluigi Astore (Yosemite Sam), and Gabriele Patriarca (Speedy Gonzales) are voicing their characters since 2011 (starting with The Looney Tunes Show).
• Sequel Gap: Comes out 25 years after Space Jam, 18 years after the previous theatrical Looney Tunes movie Back in Action, and 6 years after the previous Looney Tunes movie ''Rabbits Run.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: In commercial spots aired during the NBA playoffs, the film touted the new Goon Squad stars played by NBA stars Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, and Anthony Davis, but omitted the Goon Squad members played by WNBA stars Diana Taurasi and Nneka Ogwumike.
• Stunt Casting: Kath Soucie was going to reprise her role as Lola for the film with all her lines recorded, but was replaced with Zendaya at the last minute since Warner Bros. wanted another Celebrity Voice Actor for marketing.
• Troubled Production: Midway through the film's principal photography, director Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty) and cinematographer Bradford Young abruptly left the project, with Nance citing "different takes on the creative vision" from the studio and producers. Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) and Salvatore Totino took over Nance and Young's duties, respectively. Lee had only four days to meet the cast and crew, review VFX work and animatics and watch the original film for the first time before starting to direct. Nance is still credited as executive producer and screenwriter in the final product.
• What Could Have Been: Passes the ball to another page.

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