King Kong (Space Jam: A New Legacy)
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Ooh, King Kong. He'd be a beast on the boards.
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— Lebron James putting King Kong on his dream team list (Space Jam: A New Legacy) |
King Kong is a giant ape who appears in the 2021 Warner Bros. film Space Jam: A New Legacy. A sentient digital monster residing in the Warner Bros. Serververse, a virtual reality housing all of the company's entertainment properties, King Kong was brought to Looney Tunes World to spectate a fantastical, high-stakes basketball match between LeBron James's Tune Squad and the villainous Al-G Rhythm's Goon Squad.
Design
This incarnation of King Kong mostly resembles the incarnation from the 2018 film Ready Player One. In contrast, his skin is anchor grey, his slightly more shaggy fur is ink black, and his head is slightly wider and furrier in comparison. Overall, this King Kong resembles a real Western Lowland Gorilla more so than other incarnations. In dark lighting, King Kong's skin appears dark lavender and his fur is navy blue. In the brief moment after Al-G Rhythm insulted him, King Kong's head was narrower and his face appeared more cartoonishly proportioned.
Personality
King Kong's personality goes mostly unexplored during his screen time. From what can be made of his brief appearances, King Kong is friends with the Iron Giant and took an interest in watching the Tune Squad face the Goon Squad in a video game version of basketball. He felt very offended when Al-G Rhythm boasted "King Kong ain't got nothing on me!", crossing his arms and pouting. Nonetheless, Kong peeked with one eye to continue watching. King Kong consistently cheered for the Tune Squad's triumphs, such as whenever they scored points or when LeBron James reconciled with his son.
Origins
King Kong is an inhabitant of the Warner Bros. Serververse, an in-universe digital world encompassing every intellectual property owned by the entertainment conglomerate. Within the context of the film, this includes the monster's original 1933 film.
History
- Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Trapped in the Warner Bros. Serververse by the malevolent Al-G Rhythm unless he could assemble a team to defeat him in a basketball game, LeBron James brainstormed a "dream team" of Warner Bros.-owned characters. The NBA superstar ranked King Kong third, commenting that "He'd be a beast on the boards." Following a failed attempt to enlist Superman and Batman from DC World with Bugs Bunny, it is revealed on LeBron's list that he evaluated King Kong for "speed" and "power." The duo ultimately recruited a roster of other Looney Tunes characters, reforming the Tune Squad.
Following the Tune Squad's "upgrades" into computer-animated models, Al-G Rhythm announced the audience's arrival. King Kong was amongst the flood of Warner Bros.-owned characters that arrived at Looney Tunes World to watch the basketball game, settling into half of the seats surrounding the altered basketball court. He beat his chest and flailed his arms in glee as Al-G Rhythm brought in humans from the real world to fill in the rest of the seats. When LeBron scored the first point for his team, King Kong's jaw dropped as he witnessed the slam dunk, smiling in glee as the Tune Squad celebrated. During the transition into the game's third quarter, King Kong applauded, doing so again as the broadcasters discussed the game shifting in favor of the Tune Squad. When LeBron made amends with his son Dominic, who Al-G had tricked into an alliance, King Kong happily cheered as they embraced. Before the final quarter of the game started, Al-G Rhythm boasted, "King Kong ain't got nothing on me," to Kong's annoyance. Crossing his arms and sitting up straight, King Kong looked away and pouted before looking back at the algorithm with one eye. After LeBron scoring the winning point for the Tune Squad, King Kong fist-bumped with the Iron Giant in celebration of the team's victory. In the end, King Kong and the rest of the Serververse audience were transported off Looney Tunes World as everything returned to normal.
Abilities
Physical capabilities
King Kong is very athletic and mobile for a being of his size, covering great distances in little time. Due to his physical potential, LeBron James ranked King Kong on his list of dream basketball teammates, behind only Superman and Gandalf.
Intelligence
King Kong is highly anthropomorphic, capable of comprehending human concepts such as basketball and verbal speech, the latter most demonstrated when he pouted at Al-G Rhythm's boast, "King Kong ain't got nothing on me." King Kong consistently applauded during the game, often whenever the Tune Squad scored a point, and even fist-bumped the Iron Giant after they won the game.
Gallery
- Main article: King Kong/Gallery.
Roar
This King Kong utilizes some of the vocals of his Monsterverse counterpart, particularly those of his appearance in Godzilla vs. Kong from earlier the same year. The used hoots and bellows are somewhat altered to give this King Kong more anthropomorphic speech,[citation needed] allowing for human-like dialogue such as "Huh?" and "Hmph!"
| King Kong's roars and sound effects throughout the Monsterverse |
Trivia
- In the fictional context of Space Jam: A New Legacy, King Kong as a character is owned by Warner Bros., the poster for his debut film being shown when Al-G Rhythm describes the studio as "behind all the classics." In real life, Kong is a public domain character, and while Warner Bros. holds the distribution rights to his debut film, it was produced and originally distributed by RKO Pictures, which continues to hold its copyright.
- Al-G Rhythm's boast of "King Kong ain't got nothing on me" is a non-vulgar allusion to a famous line from Training Day (2001), "King Kong ain't got shit on me."
- This incarnation of King Kong briefly interacts with the Iron Giant; both characters also appeared in Ready Player One (2018), albeit in separate scenes.
- While this King Kong appears similar to his Ready Player One incarnation, it is unknown if the model for that iteration was reused.
- Though denied a chance to play basketball alongside Superman and Batman, Kong would later join forces with both superheroes in the 2023-2024 crossover comic Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, as well as its 2025-2026 sequel.
References
This is a list of references for King Kong (Space Jam: A New Legacy). These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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