The French skunk will not be appearing in any Looney Tunes projects going forward
You may recognise Pepe Le Pew from Warner Bros’ Space Jam and Looney Tunes. However, the controversial cartoon skunk will not be appearing on our TV screens any time soon.
He has been been scrapped from the new sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy, which is to be released on July 16th, with The Hollywood Reporter revealing that Pepe Le Pew will no longer feature in any Looney Tunes projects going forward.
A columnist in the New York Times, Charles M. Blow went viral earlier this week after tweeting that the French skunk ‘normalised rape culture’.
https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1368200161558663168
The columnist said: “This helped teach boys that ‘no’ didn’t really mean no, that it was a part of ‘the game’, the starting line of a power struggle. It taught overcoming a woman’s strenuous, even physical objections, was normal, adorable, funny. They didn’t even give the woman the ability to SPEAK.”
The project’s previous director, Terence Nance, had reportedly been keen to address the character’s problematic nature in Space Jam 2.
It has been revealed that he had filmed a scene with singer-actress Greice Santo that would have shown her pouring a drink over Pepe and slapping him after he tried to kiss her arm against her will.
In the scene, Pepe also revealed that Penelope Pussycat had filed a restraining order against Pepe, with LeBron James telling Pepe that he cannot grab other Tunes without their consent.
However, this scene was cut and Santo’s spokesperson said that the singer-actress was left upset by the decision, as Pepe was due to finally get his comeuppance.
