Adam Sandler reveals Carl Weathers was due to have a “massive part” in ‘Happy Gilmore 2’
Adam Sandler has revealed he originally planned a “massive part” for the late Carl Weathers in Happy Gilmore 2.
Weathers, best known for playing Apollo Creed in the first four iterations of the Rocky franchise, died last year at the age of 76. Upon announcing his passing, his family described the actor as an “exceptional human being who lived an extraordinary life”. His cause of death was later reported to be atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Following Weathers’ death, Sandler paid an emotional tribute to him on Instagram, writing, “A true great man. Great dad. Great actor. Great athlete. 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!! Everyone loved him. My wife and I had the best times with him every time we saw him.”
For an entire generation, Weathers was introduced to them in Happy Gilmore as golf coach Derrick ‘Chubbs’ Peterson.
Next week, the long-awaited Happy Gilmore 2 arrives on Netflix. Now, Sandler has opened up for the first time about his original plans for Peterson in the movie, which sadly couldn’t materialise due to Weathers’ death.
In a new interview with Collider, Sandler said: “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.”
The comedy icon continued: “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.”
While there’s no Weathers in Happy Gilmore 2, the all-star cast does include the return of Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin and Ben Stiller as Hal L. Meanwhile, Benny Safdie, Eric Andre and Bad Bunny are among the new cast members.
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