Director Malcolm D. Lee on pulling off Space Jam: A New Legacy’s most surprising cameo
The Looney Tunes sequel is stuffed with surprising Warner Bros. characters, but there's one cameo more unexpected than the rest
Image: Graphic: Natalie Peeples Film Features Space Jam: A New Legacy
This article discusses some of the surprise cameos of Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Watching Space Jam: A New Legacy is a bit like scrolling through the HBO Max library: You might be looking for some classic Looney Tunes animation, but there’s plenty of other Warner Bros. properties there to distract you. By sending star LeBron James—and by extension, the audience—into the “Warner Bros. Server-verse,” the belated sequel becomes a playground for the storied studio’s most recognizable IP, nodding to its cinematic history, from Casablanca to Mad Max: Fury Road, and even making room for Rick And Morty to pop in for a quick gag. And that’s all before we get to the big game, The Tune Squad vs. The Goon Squad, which draws in quite the crowd: an eye-popping array of characters big, small, and wholly unexpected. There are so many blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos, Easter egg hunters are probably better off streaming at home, where they can hit “pause” every second just to take it all in.
But A New Legacy’s most memorable cameo isn’t from a Warner Bros. character at all; it’s from a real person, someone whose appearance feels both obvious and unexpected. It’s also one of the few ways the sequel makes reference to its predecessor—though not in a way you might think. Ahead of the film’s debut, The A.V. Club spoke with director Malcolm D. Lee to find out how he and his creative team pulled off the surprise. But, before that, Lee shed some light on what a massive undertaking this new Space Jam was, discussing how they wrangled so much WB IP and made it all feel appropriately looney. No stranger to ensemble comedies (Lee’s credits include Girls Trip, Undercover Brother, and The Best Man), the director confessed an initial reluctance to jump into a project this expansive, but was aided by a Tune Squad of his own to bring it all together. You can watch the discussion with Malcolm D. Lee in the video here, or read the full interview transcript below.
The A.V. Club: You’re a director that’s worked with a lot of amazing ensembles, but the scope of this movie is kind of mind-blowing. There’s LeBron James and his family, the Looney Tunes, as well as many, many worlds of Warner Brothers characters—how did it feel to play in this massive sandbox?
Malcolm D. Lee: You know, it was pretty intimidating at first. Because I hadn’t had this experience, and [had] kind of shied away from movies of this size, because I was like, “I don’t know anything about that,” and didn’t really have a great interest in it. I always felt like those were movies that you had to have a certain storytelling brain to do it. And I felt like they get so big [that] you don’t get to be the director, creatively, you get to be a traffic cop! Because there’s so many different cooks in the kitchen. But, once I understood it, once I got it and got thrown into the mix, and had such great partners—in the producing team to ILM [Industrial Light & Magic] to the Warner Animation Group—it just became like, “Oh, these are just all storytelling tools for me at my disposal.” And so, because I’ve had this 20 years of experience, I was able to bring my expertise to the table and use them as people that can help me realize the vision.
AVC: So, in terms of balancing all these different properties, did it feel like there was a responsibility to represent them in certain ways?
MDL: You know, you try to present them as they are, then just put a little twist on it, [like] when you’re gathering the Tunes up and trying to build a team together when they are scattered across the server. So, you take footage from those movies, and you insert your characters. And hopefully it’s fun and it’s funny and quick because we want to be like, “let’s get on the ride as soon as possible and get to the game!” So it wasn’t so much a responsibility, but more like just trying to pay homage to that movie and also make something fun and funny for the audience.
AVC: Right, and the Looney Tunes, historically, have been able to be inserted into anything and make it their own.
MDL: Right! I mean, I love the Looney Tunes. I grew up with Saturday morning cartoons, and that’s my memory of them: it’s that, having a bowl of cereal, and then watching them until Mom was like, “get out of the house!”
AVC: As you mentioned, much of the movie is building to this big showdown basketball game, and—from the minute we saw the first trailer—we’ve been fascinated by what was off the court, this audience of characters. Even just on the immediate sidelines, you’ve got people dressed like White Walkers and other villains. What was your experience like reining all of those folks in?
MDL: The good thing about it was that they were all in character, right? They all loved being those characters, and it was all about them being fans of the game, particularly The Goon Squad. So, “cheer for your team,” is basically what [the direction] was, in character. And sometimes, you know, they went a little too far in some ways, or they got distracted, and it was like, “Okay, please stop doing that; the action is here, not back there.” But they had great enthusiasm, and these folks had to get in hair and makeup from like three o’clock in the morning, and they’d be with us all day. I mean, kudos to the the background talent. Because, all of times, your background talent is just there to pick up a check—but these folks were here to really be a part of the movie. And they were incredible!
AVC: Again, there are so many properties and characters involved, especially in the audience—is there one you were personally excited about, or surprised by, that made it into the movie? Anything audiences should keep their eyes peeled for?
MDL: We had the live-action portion of it, and the fun part was to be able to pepper in all the other [animated] characters, like King Kong, and The Iron Giant, and The Flintstones, and The Jetsons, and the Scooby Doo crew, and Captain Caveman and those kind of Hanna-Barbera characters. That was a lot of fun to play as well, because, you know, you’re building a world! And that’s what was so incredible about working in the sandbox in this platform, and with a company as dynamic and amazing as ILM: You don’t even realize, when you’re shooting, what it’s going to be. You have to have somewhat of an imagination, like what it could be, but then they show you what else they’re building, and it’s like, “Wow!” Every time we did the visual effects review, I was amazed by what I saw. And, at the same time, it was like, “Okay, well, how do we improve upon how on it, how do we make it better?”
AVC: Finally, there’s one more specific cameo I want to ask about, and it may be the best gag of the entire movie: When the Tunes accidentally bring in Michael B. Jordan to help the team. Could you tell me about how that came together?
MLD: Yes, it was a great gag in the movie, and it’s very unique to Space Jam—only we could have that in our movie, and have the payoff that it does. But it was kind of a favor from [his] relationship with LeBron and Ryan Coogler. We just said, “Hey, this would be a great thing!” I wasn’t sure it was going to make the movie, and I didn’t know what kind of impact it was going to have, but, once we once we put it in front of an audience, everyone was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious.” So, you know, we wanted to make sure that we had something great in there, again paying homage to the predecessor.
59 Comments
Was this entire interview written by a marketing department? Q’s and A’s feel like they were spat out by a PR bot
Spat out by a pr bot – the av club
For now. Eventually the PR bots will try to unionize and they will go back to just hiring real desperate humans who will write anything for money
“write”
AVClub: This movie is pretty terrible.AVClub: Here are 40 puff pieces per day about this movie!
I watched this movie out of curiosity to see if it reached so bad it was good levels. It did not. However, I did really actually like the cameo that this article is about, so I cannot begrudge it!
I call it “the Tiffany Haddish strategy”.
You can swap out “io9″ for “AVClub” with same effect as well
You were expecting a hard hitting interview on a kid’s movie about the Loony Toons playing basketball?
I mean – do you think there’s any other way of discussing Space Jam 2?
No, the entire movie was written by a marketing department. I took the kids this weekend, and it’s a nearly plotless infomerical for Warner Bros.
Lol the dissonance of multiple space jam puff pieces… And the c- review. 🤣🤣🤣
AVC does this constantly. They’ll take any marketing money they can get and then shit on a film. At one point the site was plastered with materials about Queen & Slim, only for it to get a C+.
i get it, but at least they aren’t changing their rating to FIT the marketing money. i mean, that’s what we want, right?
I agree, I just find it funny that they never seem to promote something they genuinely like, since I refuse to believe they grade those things so low not to be accused of bias.
Maybe because the things they like don’t have the budgets for big promo circuits?
They seem to genuinely like I Think You Should Leave, and they definitely won’t shut up about it so I assume money has changed hands.
It’s a great show! They SHOULD be talking about it constantly.Again, I’m not implying anything nefarious at all, I just find it amusing that they can’t seem to nail a film worth promoting. It’s not exclusive to AV Club either – Gamespot had that problem for a long time and Jeff Gerstmann even got fired over it, because he dared to hate Kane & Lynch, a bad game that was also wallpapered all over the website.
I’m guessing the movies that are well-reviewed on this site have much, much smaller marketing budgets.
What do we want?
Independence between marketing and content!When do we want it?
DAWES!
Yeah – I have no problem with this. They are promoting the movies and interviewing the celebrities but keeping their independence and giving the movies fair reviews. It’s a good thing. You may not like Space Jam – but the AV Club without any interviews or behind the scenes promotion stuff would be pretty boring.
I have no idea what that was. Was it a series about how Lizzie keeps fit despite her royal duties?
Jim Spanfeller would suck and fuck anything, as long as that increases his revenue.
A ‘C-’ was very generous.
let them get that paper
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wow. thanks for confirming that quitting the av club was the right decision.
All I see is a bunch of Ready Player One references.
After being a day out of Space Jam 2: HBO Max bugaloo, I finally think I put a finger on why I hated it so much It wasn’t the shotgun approach to cameos and cross marketing promotion that often seemed wrong for the demo. It did suck though It was not the whole need to turn this into RPO/TronIt wasn’t anyone’s acting. LeBron wasn’t great but clearly they made him get an acting coach of some sort. He’s better then Jordan was in the original. At the end of the day. The silly reason I hate this is that they didn’t play basketball at the end. They played “video game” basketball with rules and point systems that are never defined. I mean the chances of me giving a fuck about the game were slim to start but it’s impossible when you can have a character fart and then quote a 25 year old movie and then bam “100 points”. “Oh no, they are cheating now!”. Like how am I even able to tell that when the game had no fucking rules to start.
They ignored the rules about dribbling and fouls in the first as well, but the movie glossed over it because both the Monstars and Tunes were doing it.So it wasn’t really cheating as much as it was cartoons playing basketball.
I have not seen the movie because I don’t care, but I tried the video game associated with it. It looked old school and possibly stupid fun, I wouldn’t recommend it. It is functional and playable at least, sometimes rushed licensed games aren’t, but there’s nothing worthwhile there either.From the 2 clips I’ve seen of the movie I think I probably shouldn’t bother. It looks ambitiously extra annoying.
There’s actually two ideas here that I think would’ve been worth focusing on as a movie unto themselves: [SPOILERS Ahead]1) Bugs Bunny being all alone in Tune World because all his compats took the option to explore other worlds and goes on a quest to try and reconnect and bring them home.2) If LeBron were allowed to build his dream team with DCAU’s Superman, Iron Giant and King Kong, how he managed to convince them to join him and see how these different characters played off each other.
I’m late to comment on this, but #1 is basically the plot of one of the Muppet movies. To which I say – Yes, please! Just effing do that!
Like, I don’t think Marvel and Disney should be the end-all, be-all of the movie industry, but even their worst stuff has a base line of watchability to it. Whereas plenty of WB and DC projects are more “so bad they’re bad” or really only palatable as How Did This Get Made? fodder.
Good call. It’s been so long since I’d seen a Muppet Movie, I hadn’t even thought of that.
Damn! The whole thing has been spoiled now!!
Hmm, I would have guessed this to be an Alan Smithee joint.
Didn’t you hear? Alan Smithee was “retired” at the end of the 90s. His last film was “Burn, Hollywood, Burn!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee
Or at least have an Alan B. Smithee cameo.
Was it Lee who remembered Frankenstein Jr. and put him visibly in the background?
As funny as the gag was… I would have loved to see a movie where Michael Jordan and Lebron are on the same basketball team.
Yeah, I’m shocked that the real MJ didn’t have at least a cameo.
Or that WB didn’t somehow at least add Bill Murray to it’s roster of background cameos.
Did you watch “The Last Dance?” I don’t see how anyone could come away from that thinking MJ would willingly be a cameo in LeBron’s movie.
If he did indeed have a cameo and word got out prior to release, everyone would have only watched it for him.
No offence intended to Michael Jordan, but I can think of one more surprising cameo:
Good catch. I just assumed it was the Valek Nun from the Conjuring movies.
She might be! I’m just going by this guy’s Tweet. Conjuring nun’s no less out of place next to a Wicked Witch’s flying monkey than the Devils’ Mother Superior.
Hard to say because they did such a half-assed job with Arnie’s Mr. Freeze and DeVito’s Penguin, especially when you consider that they were front and center with a generous amount of camera holds of them just behind Cheadle or off to his side.
Was this an awkward conversation or did you record it before the review went up
Until I read this article, I had no idea it was possible to stack bullshit this high.
Whoops, looks like you forgot the “sponsored content” tag.
This entire film had the critical thinking of an executive brainstorming session. It was profoundly cynical, artless, and – worst of all – boring. It didn’t have a clue who its audience was (why the fuck are the Droogs in my kids’ Looney Tunes movie?), and it just didn’t care. The most emotional moment was when Danny Elfman and John Williams’ music was playing. Every person involved in this should be deeply ashamed and quit the business. But even though that’s how I feel about the people who made the movie, at least they made something. Imagine being some hack who gets tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt only to sell out so hard with non-articles like this. Imagine, spending your life trying to write for one of your dream websites… only to arrive too late for it to matter. To have missed the glory days and only contribute more shit to an already massive pile of shit. To have your life’s work amount to minimum-wage shilling for some Warner Brothers executive… that will be immediately forgotten as your bills come due again.So much time. So much stress. So much effort. And yet so little impact in the world.
The John Williams and Danny Elfman music felt offensive to me. It wasn’t added to the movie because it was clever. It was added because WB wanted to exploit those feelings of happiness in an otherwise dull movie.
True, but it at least reminded me of more enjoyable movies. It made me think, “What if they’d really leaned into the wide world of WB animation?” There’s soooo much to draw from, and seeing both the Burgess Meredith and Danny Devito Penguins next to each other just hammered home the missed opportunity.Something like The LEGO Movie or Into the SpiderVerse would have been a slam dunk. Instead, this film was crafted with the same level of talent and care as a teenager folding laundry.
Kubrick would have been so proud.
The Michael B. Jordan cameo was hilarious? The definition of hilarious must now be “obvious and dumb”.
The clever one would be a cameo by the UC-Berkeley AI researcher Michael I Jordan.
Shit talking everything Hollywood-related while publishing a blatantly obvious promotion for one of the most cynical and soulless IP dumps in movie history. Y’all are full of it.