LeBron James will lead the Looney Tunes in a high-stakes basketball contest in Space Jam: A New Legacy, which will be released soon. This time, however, they won't be up against a gang of extraterrestrials. Al-G Rhythm, Don Cheadle's scheming algorithm (get it?) who confronts King James with his own Goon Squad, is introduced in A New Legacy. Although James and Cheadle's characters had the opportunity to play against each other in the film, no such clash occurred off camera. Cheadle, on the other hand, had a good reason for never playing the NBA player in a genuine game on set.

Working with an athlete, especially one of LeBron James' caliber, must be a dream come true for many, and some may be tempted to challenge said superstar to a game. So when I asked Don Cheadle about Space Jam: A New Legacy, he expressed regret that he didn't get the chance to hoop it up with James. However, as he noted, one of the production's main goals was to keep LeBron James safe during the shoot. He said, “I wish, I wish I had ever been able to just play with him, just to do it, just to have that experience. But you know, I think the headline that everyone was definitely trying to avoid was, ‘LeBron James gets injured on the set of Space Jam 2 [laughs] in a pick-up game.’ It’s like… No, we weren’t doing that. Even in the movie, when he would go hard, go hard at the basket and dunk, we’d have technocranes around him and extras and standing around and camera equipment, we were all very nervous.”