Michael Jordan must be having a little chuckle to himself watching the unexpected and consistent string of controversies unfolding around Space Jam: A New Legacy. After all, His Airness didn’t have to deal with multiple social media furors, the wrath of cancel culture and the threat of a boycott when he was gearing up to co-star with Bugs Bunny and the gang back in the summer of 1996.
It’s taken a quarter of a century for the sequel to happen, and almost as soon as A New Legacy entered the final stretch, it became beset by a series of unexpected waves of negative publicity. It turned out that the Pepé Le Pew fandom was a lot bigger than anyone expected, given how many folks hopped onto Twitter to defend the skunk’s honor after it was revealed he’d been dropped from the movie almost two years ago, before a lot of more questionable social media users demanded to know why Lola Bunny wasn’t as hot as she used to be.
Star LeBron James has been at the center of the latest batch of headlines seized by Malcolm D. Lee’s family-friendly sports film, after he posted and then deleted a tweet that many interpreted as a means to incite violence towards law enforcement. The leading man removed it from his timeline and issued two further statements to explain his decision, but that wasn’t good enough for one Ohio bar owner.
Following the Space Jam: A New Legacy boycott trending worldwide, James responded to the news that the establishment in question wouldn’t be showing any NBA games until he’d been expelled from the league, and you can see his response below.
Aww Damn! I was headed there to watch our game tonight and have a drink! Welp. 🥴 https://t.co/RRfRksjckM
— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 24, 2021
Evidently, the athlete doesn’t care in the slightest that one bar has taken a stand against the NBA as a whole, but it’ll be interesting to see if the boycott has any noticeable effect on Space Jam: A New Legacy‘s impending July release.
