Coming Soon: ‘The LeBrons’ Animated Series

Yeah, so this is actually happening. The NY Times has the interview with LBJ (click here the short promo trailer): “I think everybody, even grown-ups now, today all wish they could be a superhero,’ Mr. James, the Miami Heat forward and six-time N.B.A. All-Star, said in a recent telephone interview. ‘I definitely had that imagination of, like, wow, it would be great to look over a city and take down the bad guys. Absolutely, I had those visions.’ In his latest venture, Mr. James won’t be fighting crime Batman-style (even if he could probably afford it), but he still hopes to bring inspiration to his young fans. He is taking his talents to the Internet in a new Web-based animated series that will revisit some of his best-known off-the-court performances while featuring socially conscious messages. The cartoon series, called ‘The LeBrons’ and planned for a spring debut on its own YouTube channel and Mr. James’s Web site, lebronjames.com, will revive the characters from a popular series of Nike commercials in which Mr. James played four versions of himself: the youthful and wide-eyed Kid LeBron; the physically adept Athlete LeBron; the smooth and savvy Business LeBron; and an ornery elder statesman called Wise LeBron. ‘I’m mostly a kid at heart,’ Mr. James said of these manifestations, ‘and I’m the athlete, of course, that everyone sees. But I also have a business side, a cool side, and I love antique stuff and classical music. I guess that’s the old man side of me.’ ‘The LeBrons,’ whose first season will consist of 10 episodes of five to six minutes each, will center on the world of 16-year-old Kid LeBron and his life in Akron, Ohio, using authentic locations from that city, where Mr. James was born and raised.”