Months after the long-awaited Space Jam 2 finally dropped a release date, the movie has reportedly assembled the lineup for which basketball stars will appear in the follow up to the Michael Jordan classic. That's right, we said "basketball stars," because it appears this sequel will be reaching for talent outside the confines of the NBA.
So, who's on the roster? According to notable NBA reporter Shams Charania, the movie will have a lot of stars from the NBA and WNBA featured in the film. With that said, there were a couple specific name drops of notable superstars from each brand who are said to have key roles. Those names include Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson,Diana Taurasi, and Chiney And Nneka Ogwumike.
Of those NBA stars rumored to have key roles, the most buzzworthy is Lebron James' newest teammate on the Los Angeles Lakers, Anthony Davis. His inclusion alongside Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson has some NBA fans up in arms, especially given all the drama caused in the most recent NBA season with rumors that James was pushing to trade the Lakers' younger stars for Davis.
That trade happened, and now some fans are jokingly, but also kind of seriously, wondering if the check Anthony Davis got for Space Jam 2 was some incentive to help ink the deal. Beyond that, there's drama in that Klay Thompson is a member of the Golden State Warriors, a team that has played a major part against Lebron James in his career. Just to stoke speculative fires, Thompson could potentially be traded in free agency this offseason.
Damian Lillard and Lebron James don't have a huge competitive history, although it is worth mentioning Lebron picked Lillard for his all-star team this latest season. Both players have had mutual praise for each other, and all of a sudden these rumored key roles for these players in Space Jam 2 feels like James laying the groundwork for a future Lakers super team. I jest, of course, especially since the other stars he's got involved can't crossover into the NBA.
As previously mentioned, Space Jam 2 allegedly has WNBA stars appearing such as the Phoenix Mercury's Diana Taurasi, and Los Angeles Sparks sisters Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike. Taurasi is one of the biggest stars in WNBA history, with some equating her phenomenal success to legend Michael Jordan. Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike are two other all-stars of the WNBA and among their accomplishments, are the first pair of sisters to be selected into a WNBA all-star game.
Space Jam 2's alleged inclusion pf these players is pretty exciting, especially considering the original movie excluded the lesser celebrated women's professional sports organization. So three cheers for Space Jam 2 if this is true! WNBA stars don't get the type of fanfare or level of acclaim as NBA stars, but perhaps that will change as the exposure of these stars may draw a younger and possibly adult audience to check out what's going on in women's professional basketball.
And just to bring it up again, these are just the rumored players that will be playing key roles. There's a chance even more NBA and WNBA stars will be involved (provided they don't mind working with Lebron James) in Space Jam 2, but we don't even have official confirmation this list is legitimate. Really the only person known to star for sure is James, and of course a number of the Looney Tunes characters we know and love.
We really don't even know what Space Jam 2 will be about, although the title suggests that alien creatures could play a role once again. Will these rumored players with key roles have their abilities stripped of them like in the first movie, or will the plot be something entirely different? We can only wait and see, and we may be waiting a while considering this one isn't coming out until 2021 at the earliest.
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Right now, Space Jam 2 has a release date of July 16, 2021, and CinemaBlend will be the place to be for updates and perhaps an official casting list when some more official details come out.
