'Space Jam 2' Starring LeBron James May Actually Become Reality

Leave it to the internet to make a mountain out of a molehill. 

It seems like only online could people read the sentence "LeBron James' production company has entered into a partnership with Warner Bros that spans movies, television and digital content" and come away with "Space Jam 2 is happening" — but actually, in defense of the masses, there's good reason to reach that conclusion.

Yes, from a story broken by the Wall Street Journal — that James' company SpringHill Entertainment, which he co-founded with Maverick Carter, had signed on the dotted line with Warner — has sprung a bountiful well of speculative fervour over the prospect of a sequel to 1996's beloved, cult-like, live-action/animated basketball flick starring Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, Wayne Knight and the Looney Tunes, and it's based on logical evidence, for a change.

As Business Insider notes, for example, back in 2012, James tweeted to a fan that he "love[s]" Space Jam, and "wish[es] I could do Space Jam 2!" While that's hardly a concrete piece of proof on its own, it does establish a sequel as something James has thought about for a while, and contextualises a recent quote by the basketballer in the wake of the Warner deal: "To be able to partner with Warner Bros. will allow me to do some things I've always dreamed of."

Last year, that escalated to a full-on report by Deadline claiming that the film was solidly in the works, but that fact was flatly denied by James at the time, leaving the idea essentially laying dormant until this newest burst of credibility. Business Insider, for its part, points to a tweet from ESPN journo Brian Windhorst, who they describe as the network's "best LeBron reporter" (how would we know?): "Warner Bros. owns rights to Space Jam. There's been attempts by production companies to get LeBron to star in a reboot in recent years."

And, of course, there's this:

You have to admit, if anything carries Space Jam-specific weight in all of this, then it's the fact Warner has renewed the trademarks for the franchise. That, certainly, hints at some interest from the studio at revisiting the idea, at least. 

However, presuming the commentators are right on this, and there is indeed a sequel or reboot or (god forbid) remake now properly in the works, the big question is whether Warner Bros will finally take down the original film's gloriously '90s website, which exists to this day and is one of the true archival joys of the internet.

Anyway, until we have something more from either Warner or LeBron — neither of whom has directly addressed the Space Jam 2 speculation yet — we'll leave you to mull the pros and cons of a follow-up to The Greatest Film Of The 1990s (This Is Not Up For Debate) with some vintage trailer goodness, from a time before previews wrecked the whole movie.