On July 16 Space Jam 2 is being released but the trailer was released to eager fans on Apr. 3  on Lebron James’ Instagram account (@kingjames) and is just over two minutes and 30 seconds long. The trailer has over 10 million views and has created anticipation among fans.

Space Jam 2 is coming out 25 years after the release of the original Space Jam starring Michael Jordan. The original movie was a box office smash that grossed over $250 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time. The film had a multitude of NBA players cast, such as Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Bird, Muggsy Bogues, Shawn Bradley and Larry Johnson. The movie had the Monstars as the antagonists with the starting lineup being Bradley, Ewing, Bogues, Johnson and Barkley and Bird playing Jordan’s golfing partner.

Space Jam 2 stars Lebron James and also has an extensive cast of NBA and WNBA players including Diana Taurasi, Damian Lillard, Chiney Ogwumike, Kyle Kuzma, Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, Nneka Ogwumike, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The trailer and cast list don’t specify the roles of the players yet, but show that most characters are either making brief cameos or playing for the antagonists. This is the first time acting for most of these athletes, except for Lebron James who appeared in the 2018 animated movie, Smallfoot and the 2015 comedy, Trainwreck.

In 2018, Uncle Drew was released and also had a cast full of WNBA and NBA players. The cast included Kyrie Irving, Shaquille O’Neal, Nate Robinson, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Lisa Leslie and Aaron Gordon. The movie was a success, raking in over $42 million worldwide and scoring a 61% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.

Sophomore Jake Konigsberg said, “I watched Space Jam and Uncle Drew and I thought that they were both very good movies and it was cool to see people who would normally be on the basketball court in a movie. After seeing the trailer for Space Jam 2 and watching those two previous basketball movies I have high expectations and I am really excited for the movie.”

Space Jam 2 is produced by Springhill Entertainment, a film production company started by Maverick Carter and Lebron James and by Warner Brothers Media. Characters from other Warner Brothers movies making cameos include The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, King Kong, IT and the Looney Tunes. The movie will exclusively be available on HBO Max and in the theaters.

Sophomore Saurav Khetan said, “I am a big Lebron James fan and I’m hopefully going to watch the movie either in theaters or on HBO Max on opening day. After watching the trailer, the main reason I am so excited to watch this is because of all the cameos of basketball players. I also want to see how this movie stacks up to other sports movies I have seen recently like Uncle Drew or Creed.”