Happy Gilmore 2 has been touted as a getting-the-gang-back-together project. Nearly every star from the original is in the latest, including Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin and Ben Stiller as the mustachioed menace Hal L. There’s also, of course, new faces like Bad Bunny, Travis Kelce, and every member of Sandler’s immediate family.
Bowen’s return, however, has been particularly heralded, which makes Virginia’s fate all the more surprising. The Modern Family star recently admitted, “I didn’t think they’d bring me back at all,” assuming they would find a younger love interest for Happy. (Depressingly, it often seems like the female romantic lead is the first to be recast in a legacy sequel.) For what it’s worth, Virginia, despite being dead, is never replaced. Happy remains eternally loyal to her.
This fictional death, however, can’t help but remind you of the cast member from the first movie who actually died in the decades between the two movies: Carl Weathers, who played Happy’s golf guru Chubbs Peterson, and passed away in 2024. Now, Chubbs does die in the first Happy Gilmore after falling out a window when he sees the alligator that ate his hand. But, as previously mentioned, Happy’s friends have never been limited to the corporeal.
Sandler had planned a large role for Weathers in the initial drafts of the sequel, telling Collider that, “he was coming back to me a lot in my dreams.” It’s easy to imagine that the idea to kill Virginia might have emerged in one of these rewrites, and at least Chubbs is still honored by the presence of his son, Slim (Lavell Crawford), who is also missing a hand in the sequel.
Trying to analyze Happy Gilmore 2‘s philosophy on mortality can make you feel a little silly, but there’s an underlying sweetness, and even profundity to all of it. In Happy’s world no one truly leaves—they’re always in your happy place, offering words of encouragement.
