ESPN recently dropped a “30 for 30″ mockumentary clip for LeBron James’ “Space Jam: A New Legacy” Sunday to fans’ applause, but not for Zendaya…
The six-minute, 20-second clip revealed Zendaya’s voice as the new Lola Bunny character for the first time at the 1:49 mark, as Bugs Bunny and James argue over who is the best player on the Looney Tunes squad.
What if I told you … that @KingJames and Bugs didn't exactly see eye to eye while on the Tune Squad 😬
And that was just the START of the drama that surrounded the Tunes vs Goons showdown.@spacejammovie #ad pic.twitter.com/fe9LsxelbW
— ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2021
“So cute to watch them bicker when everyone knows this is Lola’s team,” Lola Bunny says from a couch while discussing Space Jam 2.
Fans took to Twitter to voice out their disappointment over the casting as well as Zendaya’s performance.
Word has it that Kath Soucie, a professional voice actress who played Lola in the first instalment of Space Jam was supposed to reprise her role but was dropped in favour of a bigger name for marketing purposes. Soucie has also voiced characters in Phil, Lil and Betty DeVille in Rugrats, Kanga from Winnie The Pooh, Wendy in Return To Never Land and many others.
A Twitter user also complained that Zendaya fails to capture Lola’s upbeat personality by tweeting,
“Zendaya is a good voice actor but she doesn’t fit Lola Bunny since Lola is more energetic and high-pitched [sic].”
If you’re curious to hear what Kath Soucie sounded like in the first film, check out the video below!
*Cover image via Instagram @zendaya