- - Jennifer Lopez Filmed Her Surprise “Anaconda” Cameo 1 Month Before the Movie's Release

Tommy McArdleDecember 26, 2025 at 10:04 PM

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Amy Sussman/Getty;Columbia Pictures

Jennifer Lopez on Dec. 3, 2025; Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda -

Anaconda director Tom Gormican explained how he convinced Jennifer Lopez to make a cameo in the new movie as a nod to her role in the 1997 original

The new Anaconda stars Paul Rudd and Jack Black as amateur filmmakers trying to reboot the franchise

Anaconda is in theaters now

Jennifer Lopez makes a surprise cameo in the new Anaconda film, 28 years after leading the first film.

The actress, 56, costarred with Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Owen Wilson and more in the original 1997 movie.

Now, Paul Rudd and Jack Black enter the franchise for an , comedic take on the series that features a last-minute cameo from Lopez that director Tom Gormican told The Hollywood Reporter he filmed on Nov. 17, just weeks before the movie hit theaters on Dec. 25.

"We tried to get it as part of principal photography, but we couldn’t make schedules coordinate. We had always wanted a version of her to come in, and we talked about it and talked about it and talked about it," he told the outlet.

"I was finally able to shoot her cameo a month ago on November 17. It was the very last thing we did. I was finishing up my final mix when I went to shoot it, and I dropped it into this [mid-credit] sequence that I was having built to accommodate it," he said.

"I never thought it was going to ultimately materialize, but it did, and we put it together. So it happened very, very late in the game, but we did have the idea a long time ago."

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Jennifer Lopez in 1997's Anaconda; Jennifer Lopez on May 26, 2025

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Both Lopez and Ice Cube, 56, pop up in the new movie. She plays herself in a mid-credits sequence to ask Black's character Doug about directing a sequel to the movie they attempt to make in Anaconda.

Gormican told ScreenRant that Lopez's concern about appearing in the new movie was whether the filmmakers intended to merely poke fun at the 1997 version.

"No, this is a love letter to the original Anaconda," Gormican recalled telling Lopez. "And she was like, 'Then I'm totally in,' and came in. She has an incredible presence. And I think Jack and I were both like, 'Oh God, it's amazing to have her here.' But again, it's the stamp of approval."

Anaconda stars Black and Rudd alongside Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton as a group of amateur filmmakers traveling to the Amazon jungle to reboot the original movie.

The director also told THR that the production debated Ice Cube's cameo "in lots of different ways" throughout.

"I just said, 'We’ve got an abandoned boatyard, so let’s have him collect flare guns. If he’s stuck there on a [ravaged] film set, he would’ve found them as a way to defend himself,' " Gormican added. "I shot it a little bit like a Western where he shows up in silhouette. We can’t see who he is, and he’s just shooting. And I thought that dropping the guns behind him in a trail would be a very fun, very Cube way to enter the story and save our characters."

Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda

While the movie contains references to Jon Voight, whose character dies in the 1997 original, Gormican decided not to ask Voight or Owen Wilson to return to the movie since their characters had not survived.

"Of all things, we were like, 'Oh, that reality is a bridge too far,' so we couldn’t actually have them in there," he said.

Anaconda is in theaters now.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”