Adam Sandler is still upset that one important part of the “Happy Gilmore” sequel, coming to Netflix on July 25, won’t be happening.
A “huge part” was planned for Carl Weathers, who played ex-golfer Chubbs Peterson in the 1996 original. But Weathers passed away in February 2024 — and even before that, Chubbs had died in the first “Happy Gilmore.”
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. 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 said in an interview with Collider.
In the original movie, Weathers played a golfer who lost his hand to an alligator. He encourages Sandler’s character, former hockey player Happy Gilmore, to join golf tournaments and fix his bad putting skills at a mini-golf course. When Happy gives him the head of the alligator that took his hand to say thanks, it scares Chubbs, who falls out a window and dies.
Even though Chubbs didn’t survive the first film, his spirit was still planned to appear in the new sequel, visiting Happy in dreams in an early version 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
Even though Weathers couldn’t film any scenes before he passed away last year, Sandler and director Kyle Newacheck still plan for the sequel to honor the spirit of Chubbs.
You can’t make Happy Gilmore without Chubbs Peterson. 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.
Newacheck told Collider
Source: Variety