Lola Bunny (photos via Warner Bros. and Entertainment Weekly)
Lola Bunny has a new look for the new Space Jam movie. In the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 original, the only female member of the Tune Squad will no longer have a hyper-sexual appearance compared to her male teammates.
Earlier today, Entertainment Weekly provided a first look of Space Jam: A New Legacy, which features LeBron James and his Looney buds: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, and Lola Bunny. Along with a handful of promising stills from the upcoming film, EW also spoke with its director, Malcolm D. Lee, about the noticeable alterations to Lola’s character.
In Michael Jordan’s version of the film from 25 years ago, Lola was clad in a skimpy two-piece and was basically cast as a sexual object for Bugs and the gang to swoon over. In the sequel, Lola will wear the same baggy basketball uniform as the other guys, and she’ll also be the second-best athlete on the team — after LeBron, of course.
Speaking to EW, Lee said that he was caught off guard by Lola’s “very sexualized” depiction in the original, and so he wanted to make it a point to adjust that for this new rendition. “This is 2021,” Lee said. “It’s important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters.”
That’s a huge contrast to Lola’s character in the original, which contains a scene where Bugs flirts with her and calls her “Doll”, and sultry saxophones are the soundtrack to Lola’s strut. Not that that was OK back then, but in 2021 it would be preposterous — not to mention completely unnecessary in a movie about cartoon animals playing basketball with a live-action superstar.
Space Jam: A New Legacy will be one of Warner Bros.’ 2021 films that hits HBO Max and theatres (if they’re open) on the same day. It’s set to debut on July 16th.
