Netflix’s Happy Gilmore 2 will include de-aged flashback scenes which open up doors for all types of possibilities in the upcoming comedy sequel. The highly anticipated sequel to Happy Gilmore will see the return of classic stars such as Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, and Julie Bowen. Happy Gilmore 2’s cast will also feature Benny Safdie, Nick Swardson, Margaret Qualley, and cameo appearances by John Daly, Travis Kelce, and more. The Happy Gilmore sequel will be yet another one of Sandler’s films made by Netflix and is poised to be one of his most popular straight-to-streaming movies yet.
Although there is no official logline available for Happy Gilmore 2 at the time of writing, the sequel should pick up some years after 1996’s original movie, which is still considered to be one of Adam Sandler’s greatest movies. Happy Gilmore 2 will be directed by Kyle Newacheck (What We Do in the Shadows, Workaholics, Murder Mystery) and written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy, who wrote the original Happy Gilmore and many other Sandler-led classics such as The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, and Mr. Deeds. Sandler is fresh off his new Netflix comedy special Love You, which was released on August 27, 2024.
Happy Gilmore 2’s De-Aged Flashbacks Could Be For An Opening Montage
The original Happy Gilmore opened with home videos of his childhood
Actress Julie Bowen recently revealed that Happy Gilmore 2 will feature de-aged flashback scenes. She recently told Collider, “This is not a spoiler, but because there are flashbacks, they have to put me in the hair and the clothes from then, which are not my faves. It’s fun because they also get to de-age me, which I’ve never gotten done. I’m like, ‘Cool, I can’t wait to see what that is.’” She also added, “There’s a lot of really fun stuff. Adam is such a loyal, lovely person to work with, and he loves to take the people along with him from the get-go. Perry [Andelin Blake], our production designer, has been with him since Happy Gilmore, and he looks exactly the same.”
The first Happy Gilmore movie opens with him narrating his life story and videos of his childhood, moving through the years. This creates a solid foundation for Happy Gilmore 2 to open up in a similar fashion, which would provide an instant commonality and stylistic bridge between the first and second films. An opening montage that recaps the events in between the two movies in Happy Gilmore 2 could be a really fun way of getting viewers up to speed on what happened after the first movie, given it’s been almost 30 years and there’s a lot to cover.
What Else Happy Gilmore 2’s De-Aged Flashbacks Could Be For
Happy Gilmore 2 could also recreate the hilarious “Happy Place” montage
While there’s been no talk of Happy Gilmore 3 yet, using the same de-aging method could be used to round out the potential comedy trilogy. There are endless possibilities for using de-aging technology to reference other iconic scenes in the original film and incorporate other classic characters, such as Ben Stiller’s sadistic nurse Hal and the late Carl Weathers’ Chubbs. It could be a simple scene after the first movie that shows a direct continuation, or it could be another competition type of thing. It could be a funeral for Happy’s grandma, since the film will presumably want to honor the passing of Frances Bay, who died in 2011.
Happy Gilmore 2 could also employ de-aging technology to recreate the hilarious “Happy Place” montage, which would include Bowen and McDonald’s characters. A recreation of the original opening montage could fill in the blanks of what happened to Happy and Virginia Venit’s budding romance and could include clips of their wedding, honeymoon, and them together as parents raising children over the years. This seems to be the most likely use of the de-aging technology in Happy Gilmore 2, as Bowen confirmed that Happy and Virginia are still together in the sequel.
Happy Gilmore 2’s De-Aging Is A Risk, But Could Work
The fact that it’s a comedy takes some of the weight off
There have been several instances of de-aging technology going wrong and taking away from the immersion and integrity of the story. It also feels a bit more unusual to have the de-aging technology in a comedy, since the most notable examples have been major big-budget projects like Star Wars, Marvel films, Indiana Jones, and The Irishman. This fact could play to the advantage of Happy Gilmore 2 since it may not matter as much if it’s distracting, since it will likely be done for the sake of comedy and won’t need to be entirely believable. If it’s done right in Happy Gilmore 2, de-aging can be effective.