With the Space Jam sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy nearing its July release date, new details from the film are starting to emerge. Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, who stars in the film, has been excitedly sharing details about it in the past few days.
But while Space Jam: A New Legacy will see James team up with the Looney Tunes, one character from the group who will not be returning on the big screen is Pepe Le Pew.
Pepe, the cartoon skunk searching for love, reportedly had a scene cut from the Space Jam sequel that showed him behaving inappropriately around Jane the Virgin actress Greice Santo. The scene in question had the skunk playing a bartender who starts making advances on a woman at a bar, who is played by Santo. Pepe starts kissing her arm before she resists and slams his head into a chair. Santo’s character then pours her drink on Pepe before slapping him, spinning him around in his stool.
LeBron and Bugs Bunny then get involved. Pepe tells LeBron and Bugs that Penelope Pussycat, another Looney Tunes character, has a restraining order against him, with James telling him that he can’t grab other characters without their consent.
The scene was cut from Space Jam: A New Legacy after new director Malcolm D. Lee took over for Terence Nance, and it has been gone for quite some time and was never fully animated. Santo was apparently upset about the scene being cut because she liked how it showed a strong woman feeling empowered to stand up to a sexual harasser. These revelations come after New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow said Pepe Le Pew, who appeared in the original Space Jam film in 1996, “added to rape culture.” Given the reported timeline, though, Blow's comments had nothing to do with Pepe being cut.
The removal of Pepe doesn't seem to have affected James' excitement over the film's release. Space Jam: A New Legacy is set to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 16 and simultaneously on HBO Max.