Adam Sandler is still disappointed that one very important part of “Happy Gilmore” will sadly not be happening for the sequel coming to Netflix on July 25.
A “massive part” was planned for Carl Weathers, who played former pro golfer Chubbs Peterson in the 1996 original. But Weathers died in February of 2024 — and long before that, Chubbs died in the original “Happy Gilmore.”
“We had a painful change. Carl Weathers had a massive part,” Sandler said in an interview with Collider. “I would talk to Carl, and we were excited, and then Carl passed away. We had to rewrite a lot of the stuff, and even what the story was. We made a lot of nice references to how great Chubbs was in the movie. That was the biggest change.”
In the original film, Weathers played a golfer who lost a hand in an alligator attack. He urges Sandler, who plays former hockey player Happy Gilmore, to compete in golf tournaments and improve his terrible putting skills at a miniature golf course. When Happy presents him with the head of the alligator who bit off his hand as a token of thanks, he startles Chubbs, who falls out a window and dies.
But although Chubbs didn’t make it to the end of the first film, his spirit was still meant to be present in the upcoming sequel, visiting Happy in dreams in an early draft of the script.
“In the first version that we came up with, he had a son. He was coming back to me a lot in my dreams, and he had a son who was mad at Happy for causing the death of daddy,” Sandler told Collider.
But although Weathers wasn’t able to film any scenes before he died last year, Sandler and director Kyle Newacheck still intend for the sequel to remember the spirit of Chubbs.
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“You can’t make Happy Gilmore without Chubbs Peterson,” Newacheck told Collider. “It doesn’t exist. You can be assured his spirit is throughout the film. He may not be by Happy’s side anymore, but he’s on his shoulder.”
From Variety US