- Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "
Space Jam : A New Legacy." - The "Space Jam" sequel, out Friday on HBO Max and in theaters, has a funny cameo fans will love.
- The Looney Tunes hype up
Michael Jordan 's appearance in a pivotal scene, but there's a twist.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Space Jam: A New Legacy."
Michael Jordan makes a surprising appearance in the long-awaited "Space Jam" sequel, "Space Jam: A New Legacy." But not that Michael Jordan.
The hilarious cameo comes at a crucial moment where sequel star LeBron James and the Looney Tunes cartoons face off against the evil Al-G Rhythm (played by Don Cheadle) in a basketball game. As the Tunes squad is down by 1000 points, they're in dire need of a miracle to win the game.
Sylvester (voiced by Jeff Bergman) offers a solution - or so he thinks.
"I don't know if this counts a miracle, but I found Michael Jordan," Sylvester tells his teammates, referencing the star of the original 1996 film. "He was in the audience, I know he can help."
The movie hypes up Jordan's first appearance on-screen by having Daffy Duck (voiced by Eric Bauza) rattle off popular trivia about the NBA legend, like Jordan's Chicago Bulls jersey number and his very successful college basketball career at the University of North Carolina.
Unfortunately, despite dramatic music and close-ups of Jordan's shoes, a confused-looking
The "Black Panther" actor is as confused by his appearance in the locker room as the rest of the Looney Tunes characters and the audience.
"I was just getting some popcorn and this cat grabbed me," Michael B. says about Sylvester in the scene.
Sylvester, in turn, defends himself by saying that because "it's been 25 years" since the first "Space Jam" was released, the cartoon cat thought Jordan had just "aged gracefully."
"A New Legacy" producer Sev Ohanian called Michael B.'s cameo "the perfect, looniest addition to the film."
"Look, if you're gonna have a Michael Jordan in your movie, you're gonna want Michael A. Jordan, right? The Jordan," producer Sev Ohanian told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published on Friday. "But if you have the opportunity to have this incredible joke that's 25-plus years in the making, how could you not?"
Michael B. previously said that it is a "little bit" annoying to share a name with the iconic basketball star during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2013.
The actor also told "Good Morning America" several years later that the shared name is responsible for his competitive nature.
"Honestly [it] gave me a competitive chip on my shoulder," Michael B. told "GMA" in 2018. "And made me want to compete at anything I did and create my own lane and have my own legacy."