Adam Sandler said he had to rewrite Happy Gilmore 2 following Carl Weathers‘ death.
The actor and comedian who is reprising his role as Happy Gilmore in the sequel to his beloved 1996 sports comedy recently told Collider that Weathers’ Derick “Chubbs” Peterson was planned to return for the new movie before he died last year at age 76.
“We had a painful change. Carl Weathers had a massive part,” Sandler shared. “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.”
Sandler added that in initial drafts of the sequel’s script, Chubbs had a much larger presence. “In the first version that we came up with, he had a son,” he said. “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.”
Weathers played Chubbs, a pro golfer who is forced to retire after his hand is bitten off by an alligator, having to use a wooden hand, in 1996’s Happy Gilmore.
Happy Gilmore 2, directed by Kyle Newacheck, premieres on Netflix July 25. Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen and Ben Stiller also reprised their roles from the original film, while new castmembers include Bad Bunny, Margaret Qualley, Benny Safdie, Travis Kelce and Kym Whitley.
Following Weathers’ death, Sandler took to social media to pay tribute to his former co-star. “A true great man. Great dad. Great actor. Great athlete,” he wrote at the time. “So much fun to be around always. Smart as hell. Loyal as hell. Funny as hell. Loved his sons more than anything. What a guy!!”