Drew Barrymore says she got Adam Sandler to confirm that he’s in the process of writing Happy Gilmore 2.
Following comments that Christopher McDonald, who played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, shared in March that Sandler showed him a first draft of the sequel, Barrymore says she went straight to the source and texted her longtime friend and 50 First Dates co-star to ask if it was true.
In a preview from the latest episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, she dropped news of their conversation, generating more buzz surrounding the possible sequel.
“I want it. I need it. I stayed up last night with my daughter watching Billy Madison,” said Barrymore. “I sent Sandler a video [of it]. He sent me another video back and I’m waiting to see if he’s confirming about the Happy Gilmore 2 script.”
After the commercial break, Sandler got back to her, she says, and backed up McDonald’s story. “This just in, I have breaking news — I’ll just say this from my source, that it is ‘in process.’”
While appearing on podcast The Ken Carman Show With Anthony Lima on March 222, McDonald first said that Sandler is currently working on the follow-up to the 1996 classic movie.
“I saw Adam about two weeks ago, and he says, ‘McDonald, you’re gonna love this,’” said the actor. “I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘How about that,’ and he shows me the first draft of Happy Gilmore 2. I don’t wanna be a liar, but he did show me that, and I thought, ‘Well, that would be awesome.’ So, it’s in the works. Fans demand it, dammit!”
When reached by THR at the time, Netflix declined to comment on whether a Happy Gilmore sequel is in the works for the platform, and a representative for Sandler also declined to comment.
Later, Sandler revealed that McDonald wasn’t supposed to share that story publicly.
On a recent episode of the Dan Patrick Show, Sandler shared that McDonald “texted me after the fact, ‘By the way, that thing you told me not to talk about, I talked about.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s good news.’”
Sandler said that friends came by when he was doing a recent comedy special, including McDonald. He recalled telling him: “Dude, we’ve been talking about a Happy 2 and we’re working on some stuff.”
Sandler said, “That’s all I told [McDonald]. I said, ‘But don’t tell anybody. Don’t tell anybody.’ And then he, you know he kept it mostly private. He told a couple of DJs about it. They usually are great at secrets, don’t you think?”
Neither McDonald nor Barrymore shared any further details. But the possibility of the sequel is already exciting fans, renewing hope for Sandler to reprise the character.
In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter asked Happy Gilmore director Dennis Dugan whether Sandler might ever agree to do a sequel to the film and he said it was unlikely. “I can’t imagine [Sandler] would ever do that, but it’s Hollywood, so you never say that’ll never happen,” Dugan said at the time.
