“We had a painful change”: Adam Sandler reveals how Carl Weathers’ tragic death affected Happy Gilmore 2

Adam Sandler, who is all set to release the sequel Happy Gilmore 2, recently opened up in an interview with Collider about the grave impact of losing late actor Carl Weathers, who had essayed the role of Derick "Chubbs" Peterson, the mentor to Sandler's character, Happy Gilmore, in the original film.

Weathers' impeccable portrayal of Chubbs in the film has been revered for years after its release in 1996. The character of Chubbs lies at the center of the story, as he is the one who has led Happy to achieve his dream as a golfer. Apart from his mentorship, Chubbs brought a hopeful and unmatchable energy to the storytelling. The magic is something that cannot be recreated.

Unfortunately, Carl Weathers passed away in 2024. So in the upcoming sequel to the film, Adam Sandler, who is also writing the film along with Tim Herlihy from the OG film, mentioned in the interview the indelible impact and the changes they made to the script after the demise of Carl Weathers. Sandler mentions

“We had a painful change. Carl Weathers had a massive part.”

Let us find out more about what Adam Sandler discussed in regard to Carl Weathers' Chubbs in Happy Gilmore 2.

The legacy of Carl Weathers' iconic character Chubbs is intact in the sequel Happy Gilmore 2

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Adam Sandler, with a heavy heart, spoke fondly about Carl Weathers in an interview with Collider. The actor elucidates the process that they created to preserve the legacy and presence of Chubbs in the sequel, Happy Gilmore 2, after the sudden demise of Carl Weathers. Sandler states

“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.”

Adam Sandler further talked about the initial draft of the script, which he did not ultimately finalize. This is what the script looked like, as Sandler explains:

“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.”

Kyle Newacheck, the helmer of Happy Gilmore 2, spoke to Collider a few months back about Chubbs' importance in the storyline. In the original film, Chubbs, a golfer, could not continue his sports career after facing a gruesome accident involving an alligator attack. As a result, he has lost a hand and, since then, has been using a wooden prosthetic hand.

The significance of Chubbs is not limited to his physical form but also transcends to a metaphysical level. This is what Newacheck mentions:

“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.”

Last year, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dennis Dugan, the helmer of the original film, spoke about Carl Weathers' portrayal of Chubbs by stating:

“Literally couldn’t be a nicer guy, and he was so Chubbs. Nobody else could have ever been Chubbs but him.”

In Happy Gilmore 2, actor Lavell Crawford stars as Chubbs's son. Like his father, he too is shown to have a wooden hand.

Apart from Carl Weather's iconic portrayal of Chubbs in Happy Gilmore, he also appeared as the character in Little Nicky (2000), in an uncredited role.

Apart from that, some of the Emmy-nominated actors' well-known works include the Rocky film franchise (1976-1985), Fortune Dane (1986), Predator (1987), the Toy Story film series (2013, 2019), Street Justice (1991-1993), In the Heat of the Night (1993-1995), Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2017-2019), The Mandalorian (2019-2023), and many more.

Happy Gilmore 2 releases on Netflix on 25 July 2025.