In recent days, Looney Tunes were involved in a great controversy after an opinion article in The New York Times, racist stereotypes were pointed out and perhaps the one that attracted the most attention was that of the character Pepe Le Pew, who was characterized as normalizing harassment and abuse. Warner Bros. asserted that the company would not involve the skunk any more projects, but apparently this decision was not well received by everyone, since now they are asking for signatures to not cancel Pepe Le Pew.
After the release of the controversial article, this skunk was removed from the movie ‘Space Jam: Legacy’ and not because of these remarks, the scene in which the character was going to appear had been eliminated months ago, but now, they will erase it, entirely, form every Looney Tunes project it partook in.
After this decision, some fans launched a petition on change.org to collect signatures with the intention to bring back Pepe Le Pew, and hope to reach 1,500 signatures soon as possible, which seems they will achieve very soon. The question now is, will Warner Bros. take these fans into consideration and reverse their decision?
Surprisingly, he has not been the only character that fans have defended since the dubbing actor Gabriel Iglesias, who will voice the character of Speedy Gonzales for ‘Space Jam 2’, asked not to cancel the popular mouse, a request that has also been endorsed by many Mexicans who point out that they are not offended by this stereotype created in the 50s. The mouse is part of their culture and they will decide if this character offends them, not a writer who does not understand what it’s like to grow up being Mexican. Some even pointing out that they are proud of this mouse.