Sports icon and part-time rapper/actor Shaquille O’Neal has been making headlines recently after partnering with a game company to crowdfund a sequel to the infamous mid-1990s game Shaq Fu. For those unfamiliar with the game, it featured Shaq battling ninjas, and most found it to be one of the worst games ever released to stores. There’s even a website dedicated to making sure every existing copy is destroyed. Seriously.

RollingStone is running an article on Shaq’s efforts to create a new game today, and in it the basketball legend opens up about his other side projects in entertainment over the years. There is a lot of material to enjoy, but there are two big takeaways that are sure to fuel some water cooler conversation.

First, O’Neal officially considers himself retired from the rap game. He may consider a few performances in the years to come, but as far as creating new material is concerned Shaq does not see himself returning to the studio. He tells RS, “No more albums for me. I may in the future do a couple of shows, but I’m done rapping. It would be crazy for me to put out another album as a 42-year-old rapper. That’s nuts.”

We couldn’t agree more, Shaq. Good decision.

The second major reveal from the conversation with Shaq is that he claims their are ongoing talks to create a sequel to the film Steel. The original, which was released in 1997, follows a man (played by Shaq) who decides to use parts from his uncle’s junkyard to become a real ‘man of steel’ and fight crime. It was a worthwhile idea, but critics and moviegoers did not approve of the final product (the film’s approval rating is at 12% on Rotten Tomatoes). Shaq claims this is due more to the limitations of technology at the time than the story itself, telling RS “Steel had the same problem as Shaq Fu. The technology we had in Steel was okay, but then here comes Iron Man and the Star Wars prequels, and we look like amateurs. If I could get some new updated technology behind this Steel project, I would re-do that.”

There are currently no plans to revive Shaq’s other big film, Kazaam, but if Steel 2 can become a reality I guess anything is possible. You can view the trailer for the original Steel below.

As for the return of Shaq Fu, the crowdfunding campaign has raised roughly 75k of its 450k goal with 40 days left. As this is an Indiegogo effort, the company behind the campaign will be able to keep whatever they raise when the fundraising window closes (if they so desire).

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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