The version of Happy Gilmore 2 Adam Sandler began working on in 2022 looked a lot different to what we will see on our screens come July 25.

In an interview with Collider, the comedian revealed that despite the death of Chubbs Peterson in the original film, the character was set to play a large role in the sequel.

However, those plans were thwarted when Carl Weathers, the actor behind Chubbs Peterson, died in February 2024 of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

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“We had a painful change. Carl Weathers had a massive part. I would talk to Carl, and we were excited, and then Carl passed away,” Sandler told the publication.

He shared that not only did he and the team have to “rewrite a lot of the stuff”, they also had to reimagine the overall story.

”We made a lot of nice references to how great Chubbs was in the movie. That was the biggest change,” he said.

While the character had originally passed away in the first film, Sandler had planned to bring Weathers back through a series of dream sequences and even introduce a new member of Chubbs’ family.

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”In the first version that we came up with, he had a son,” he shared of the original draft of the script.

“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.”

Before Weathers’ death, that storyline was ultimately cut from the script, but there was always the intention of having Chubbs return to the screen.

“You can’t make Happy Gilmore without Chubbs Peterson,” director Kyle Newacheck told Collider in a separate interview back in April.

“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.”

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Alongside Sandler returning as the iconic title-name character, other stars such as Julie Bowen, Ben Stiller and Christopher McDonald will also be reprising their roles.

Back in May, McDonald – who stars as iconic villain Shooter McGavin – told 9honey Celebrity the making the decision to return for the sequel took him as long as it takes to snap your fingers.

“I was all in,” he assured us.

“This movie has been the gift that keeps on giving to me and I always didn’t want to, you know, not be in the sequel … it took [Sandler] long enough!”

The first film was released in 1996, and McDonald said that for the past 29 years he’s been “praying” the team would one day decide to revisit the story.

“I would remind them every six to eight years going, ‘it’s time! What do you think?’

“So they finally did it and I was over the moon happy and, having shot it now, I know it’s getting all put together in the editing process, and it’s gonna be a riot.”

Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.

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