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Nothing should surprise me anymore when it comes to Hollywood’s sequels. Yet when Tony Hawk told Pete Davidson about the sequel "that got away in his life," my mind was blown. That's because there was once a reality where we could have seen Hawk with his own Looney Tunes movie. I didn’t even know this concept existed, but not only was it in talks, the Space Jam sequel even had a name!
This is one of the coolest - and maybe most unexpected - behind-the-scenes facts about Space Jam that I have heard. I grew up watching my brother’s hand-me-down Space Jam movie, so any trivia is a nostalgic jump back to Looney Tunes ridiculousness. So, yeah, I loved hearing the skateboarder spill the tea about the offer from Warner Brothers when he sat down with Davidson on his Netflix talk show.
Turns out Brendan Fraser’s Back in Action was the reason Hawk received the offer for Skate Jam. The skateboarder name-dropping the meta film took me back to my childhood, and the idea that this film was meant to launch a reintroduction of Looney Tunes is wild. However, Hawk was immediately on board, as he said:
The way that the whole story went down was I got a call saying, 'Hey, Warner Brothers is really interested in doing Skate Jam.' And I was like, 'That is the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.'
Perhaps Skate Jam was pitched so Space Jam: A New Legacy could exist years later. The sequel starred LeBron James and had a similar concept to the original film, with the basketball star forced to form a basketball team with Looney Tunes characters. However, the sequel had a lukewarm reaction from critics. So, maybe they would have preferred Skate Jam.
It was reported that James had trouble getting other NBA players to appear in Space Jam's sequel. However, when it came to Hawk's potential movie, he was never uninterested. In fact, he still sounds bummed that he missed the opportunity to play around with the classic cartoon characters. Explaining the emotional reason behind his disappointment, the skateboarder said:
My oldest son, when he was very young, watched Space Jam endlessly, had to get Space Jam shoes. You know, he would quote it. And so, just being a father, I was like, I know how much those movies resonate. And to make it about skating would just be like the ultimate dream.
The way he talks sounds like he was just shy of his dreams coming true. Warner Brothers were so invested that they met with him about the movie in an airport restaurant as he was leaving for Australia. They even brought storyboards. You know things are serious when production companies bring out the storyboards in the airport. Hawk also claimed they were even offering “a million bucks” up front, but alas, Skate Jam was just not meant to be.
The existence of his film relied on how well Back in Action did, and unfortunately, it didn’t do well at the box office despite starring Brendan Fraser. Because of this, Warner Brothers had no desire to “pour anything else into Looney Tunes.” However, in recent years, the love for the classic cartoons has resurfaced with the well-reviewed The Day the Earth Blew Up. The movie re-invented Daffy Duck and Porky Pig’s backstory and gave them a new comedic challenge: save the world. So, at least we've gotten some new adventures from these characters.
However, sadly, they have not included Tony Hawk. So, while we won’t get to see Skate Jam, it’s fun to think about what could have been.
