The Important Thing Bill Murray Wants Everyone To Remember About Space Jam

Murray first appeared near the beginning of Space Jam, playing golf with Jordan before the basketball great was sucked down the rabbit hole (so to speak) into the cartoon world to help out Bugs and crew with their game. In a November 2016 conversation with Entertainment Weekly, the flick's director, Joe Pytka, revealed that originally, the golf course scene was to be the only one that Murray was in.

"I'm glad Murray showed up," the director said. Bill only came in for the golf course stuff because he didn't like the idea of working in animation. While we were shooting the golf course scene, he asked how I was dealing with the actors dealing with the animated characters." 

Apparently, Pytka's description of how he planned to combine the animated and live-action elements of the climactic game was so fascinating to Murray that he decided he wanted to be a part of it. "When [Murray] found out how we were doing that, we wrote a couple of extra scenes for him at the end of the movie, when he comes back to the basketball game," he shared.

Pytka went on to explain that while he had been offered a chance to direct the upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy, he had turned it down — for one simple reason. "I've worked with LeBron [James, the sequel's star]... and as good a player as [he is]... [he's not] Michael Jordan," Pytka said. "We will never see another player like him. He was a transcendent figure, much like Muhammad Ali. He was beyond his sport."

As true as this may be, we submit that even Jordan needed players like Bill Murray to make him truly great in Space Jam. While we don't yet know if Murray will return for the Space Jam sequel, our hopes are high; after all, is Don Cheadle gonna make that clutch assist? Yeah, right. Fat chance, War Machine.