'Space Jam 2': Has Pepe Le Pew Really Been Canceled?

Space Jam 2 (aka Space Jam: A New Legacy) is set to be released on HBO Max in July, and details are starting to emerge about which Looney Tunes will and will not be in the movie sequel. Though characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are shoo-ins for the sports comedy, Pepe Le Pew will reportedly not be making an appearance in the film, leading to accusations that the character had been canceled.

This news, coming after the news that a number of Dr. Seuss books are going out of print and that a number of episodes of The Muppet Show have been removed or edited from Disney+ led a number of people to complain on social media that the character was being removed due to political correctness.

Many made this assumption because the news that the character would not appear in the film came the day after New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow said that the character "added to rape culture."

He followed this up in a thread which said, "RW [right wing] blogs are mad bc I said Pepe Le Pew added to rape culture. Let's see. 1. He grabs/kisses a girl/stranger, repeatedly, w/o consent and against her will. 2. She struggles mightily to get away from him, but he won't release her 3. He locks a door to prevent her from escaping."

This quickly led to many Twitter users either decrying the decision to cancel a cartoon character as ridiculous or saying that they too had always found the character's action unpalatable.

Among those taking the latter view was director James Gunn, who was previously let go (then rehired) as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 over some controversial jokes he made on Twitter. He said, "Pepe le Pew, to me at least, is offensive because of the way he treats that cat."

Oak Ridge Boys singer Joe Bonsall ridiculed the whole notion of so-called cancel culture in a tweet that read: "About time that French sexist skunk Pepe' Le Pew is deleted and canceled!!! Mr Potato Head and Dr Seuss as well POOF! This stuff is much more important any stupid virus I say CHESS should go next Why does the racist white piece always move first? WHY? Our society depends on it!"

These conversations about whether the character had been cut from the film because of his attitudes to women (or at least women cats), however, got away from the fact that the scene had been excised from the movie long before the New York Times op-ed.

The scene is thought to have been cut out up to a year ago, after initial Space Jam 2 director Terence Nance dropped out and was replaced by Malcolm D. Lee. Deadline claims that a scene was planned in which Pepé Le Pew is a bartender who starts kissing the arm of Jane the Virgin actor Greice Santo, only for her to pour her drink on him and slap him. Pepe Le Pew was never animated into the segment, and the first screenings of the film earlier in the year did not include the scene.

A spokesperson for Greice confirmed to Deadline that the star filmed a scene that was set to feature the animated skunk, but that it will not appear in A New Legacy.

They said: "This was such a big deal for Greice to be in this movie. Even though Pepe is a cartoon character, if anyone was going to slap a sexual harasser like him, Greice wished it would be her. Now the scene is cut, and she doesn't have that power to influence the world through younger generations who'll be watching Space Jam 2, to let younger girls and younger boys know that Pepe's behavior is unacceptable."

This scene comes two years after the actor and singer spoke out about being a victim of sexual harassment and released "Você Você," a song urging women to come forward about sexual predators.

If true, this means that headlines that claim he was "cut" or "erased" from the movie are not accurate. Rather, the scene was taken out when the new director came in with their own vision for the film—something that, as fellow upcoming HBO Max movie Zack Snyder's Justice League shows, is fairly common practice in Hollywood.

In fact, the character appeared in an official Looney Tunes cartoon as recently as January 2020, when he appeared in Cartoon Network's New Looney Tunes. He has not, however, appeared yet in the HBO Max reboot of the cartoon.

The skunk, who first appeared in the Looney Tunes cartoons in 1945, only made a very brief appearance in the original 1997 Space Jam, in which he can be seen scoring against the Mon-Stars in the final match by using his stench to knock the other team out.

Newsweek has contacted Warner Bros. for comment.