'Space Jam: A New Legacy' Trailer Gives People 'Ready Player One' Vibes

The long-awaited trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy dropped over the weekend, and while it showcases plenty that you'd expect from a sequel—the Looney Toons and NBA star Lebron James playing goofy basketball—it was the unexpected elements that drew the internet's attention.

Unlike the original Space Jam, A New Legacy transports its star into not just the Looney Toons universe, but seemingly the entire world of fiction. At one point while brainstorming his all-star basketball team, cartoon Lebron theorizes that he needs characters like Superman, Gandalf, King Kong and The Iron Giant.

Cameos abound in the 2-and-a-half minute trailer, which gave social media users extreme Ready Player One vibes. Ernest Cline's fantasy novel, later adapted into a film by Stephen Spielberg, also featured a smorgasbord of pop culture icons, but was mocked for the way it divorced the characters from their source material. The reaction to New Legacy's trailer was similar.

Perhaps the most bewildering cameo in the Space Jam 2 trailer was that of the Clockwork Orange droogs, who can be spotted in the crowd right at the end of the trailer. While the appearance of various cartoon characters makes some sense in the context of a Space Jam film, the cast of miscreants from Stanley Kubrick's classic, who rob, assault, and rape people in that film, seemed particularly out of place.

Space Jam: A New Legacy comes out July 16th.