Space Jam: A New Legacy just revealed a first-look, which means buckle up for the discourse

We’ve been given our best look yet at the new Space Jam sequel starring LeBron James, which means buckle up for the discourse. 

If you’ve been waiting for more Space Jam: A New Legacy hype, the train seems to be arriving at the station. Buckle in tight, though, because the ride is going to be bumpy for one reason or another.

Derek Lawrence wrote a phenomenal piece in Entertainment Weekly detailing the plot and production of the film. Rather than simply rebooting the original Space Jam and recasting Jordan with LeBron, Warner Bros is going to use the film to Trojan Horse nostalgia for its entire cinematic catalog.

New images of Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James

Get your grandparents, the Casablanca crossover with Joker is absolutely going to make this year’s Christmas letter.

"They will be in good Warner Bros. company. When James is sucked into the WB server, he drifts through some of the studio’s most famous films to track down his underdog squad. “It was a tricky thing just in terms of what you may want, like, ‘Oh my God, look, there’s Mad Max, and there’s Casablanca!'” Lee explains. (James also mentioned The Matrix and Wonder Woman as part of the WB look back, though no title is confirmed yet.) In addition to entering these worlds, “we have a lot of the WB characters at the game, watching like they do at Rucker Park,” Lee says, referencing the historic NYC street court."

This is truly going to be a love-it-or-hate-it experience that will either be extremely clever in its meta approach or be slammed for being too clever for its own good.

But aside from actual film analysis, the true legacy of this film will be its addition into the hottest sports debate of this generation and the last.

As with all things in this day and age, part of the package deal of Space Jam: A New Legacy is going to be the discourse. Specifically, the LeBron vs. MJ debate is about to get quite literally cartoonish, as both of the Space Jam films will become ammunition for the argument as to which player is truly the G.O.A.T.

If Space Jam: A New Legacy is a hit, dare we say a bigger hit than Space Jam, LeBron stans will never let us forget. Ditto for the flip side of that coin, as any sort of underperformance by the Space Jam sequel — financial, critical, and everything in between — will be used against LeBron.

Whether or not the film holds any value as a piece of film history is already null and void. This already all about the MJ vs. LeBron debate and if the actual movie is garbage the discourse it births will be worth the price of production.