Pepé Le Pew will not be featured in "Space Jam 2."
The suddenly controversialLooney Tunes skunk cartoon character was scrubbed from the Lebron James movie more than a year ago.
News of the character's absence from the Warner Bros. film broke Sunday evening, days after a New York Times opinion piece called out the character, among other problematic cartoon characters, in the wake of Dr. Seuss Enterprises announcing it would stop publishing six books because of racist and insensitive imagery.
In the Times opinion piece,Charles M. Blow said Pepé Le Pew "normalized rape culture."
The character was featured in "Space Jam", which starred NBA living legend Michael Jordan. It is unclear if the cartoon character will be retired completely.
"Space Jam 2" is due out July 16, 2021.
Source: Hollywood Reporter.
Photo Credit: James Keyser/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images.