Anaconda 2025 Casting Reveal: Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez—In or Out?
Anaconda 2025 has finally slithered into theaters, and one question is squeezing every fan: do Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez return? The meta-reboot has an answer—here’s whether the original stars show up and how the film uses them.
Anaconda (2025) is finally out, and yes, I went in wondering the same thing you did: do Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez actually show up? The movie is a meta-reboot that loves to blur what's real and what's a movie, so the door is wide open for legacy faces. Here is who turns up, how they turn up, and what the film does with them.
So... does Ice Cube show up?
He does. The trailers already spoil it, but Ice Cube pops in for a quick cameo. Important detail: he is not playing Danny Rich from the 1997 original. He is playing Ice Cube.
The movie leans hard into its own wink-wink concept. Our main crew — Doug, Griff, Kenny, and Claire — are out making their own scrappy Anaconda movie when things go sideways. During the climax, a real anaconda puts Doug and Griff on the menu. That is when Cube appears and literally rescues them from getting swallowed.
He then lays out the film's funniest bend-the-reality gag: Sony — as in the studio that released the 1997 Anaconda — has also been shooting their official reboot nearby, but their sets got wrecked when the actual snake tore through. It's a very self-aware bit of studio-versus-guerrilla filmmaking humor.
Naturally, Doug and Griff are stunned, grab a quick selfie with Cube, and bolt because he tells them something even more chaotic: Jennifer Lopez and Eric Stoltz are in trouble and need help. Yes, the movie name-drops them right there.
What Ice Cube said about doing it
On the reboot's red carpet, Cube — who also popped up in 21 Jump Street — talked about why he signed on. Via People:
"It's cool to do a cameo, to kind of make it go full circle in a way. When they asked me to do it, when I knew the kind of movie they were doing, I jumped at it. I'm like, 'This is something different. It's cool,'"
Is Jennifer Lopez in it?
Also yes — but very briefly, and also as herself. She does not reprise her original role. Lopez shows up during the end credits at Doug's house to watch the not-exactly-legal Anaconda reboot he shot. She loves what she sees and asks him to direct her upcoming, fully sanctioned Sony version. It's a clean punchline to the movie's whole reality-versus-movie-within-a-movie bit.
The bottom line
Both Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez appear in Anaconda (2025), but neither plays their 1997 characters. Cube gets the big heroic cameo in the climax, complete with a 'Sony was making their own reboot' reveal and a quick name-drop of Eric Stoltz being in danger. Lopez swings by in the credits for a meta button: she hires Doug to helm the official reboot after watching his bootleg cut. Not subtle, but it fits the movie's playful, industry-winking vibe.