In the fallout of the personal scandal that has befallen actor Armie Hammer, quite a few projects have seen future roles that he’d been cast in shuffled to other actors. Films like the Jennifer Lopez action-comedy Shotgun Wedding were able to bring in replacements before production, which is how Josh Duhamel wound up with the honors in that case. However, another film that had secured Hammer’s total involvement has officially recast his completed role; with his replacement already wrapped on reshooting his role.
Deadline recently revealed that director Taika Waititi’s sports dramedy Next Goal Wins has not only recast Hammer with actor Will Arnett, but the scenes replacing all of Armie Hammer’s work are in the can. According to the information reported, Arnett’s part as “an executive at the Football Federation American Samoa” was expanded from its original context of a short appearance. This reimagining, as well as Hammer being unavailable to do the reshoots himself, are what led to the Rumble star to be tagged in at the 11th hour.
This news comes quite soon after the announcement that Armie Hammer had completed a rehab program, which came after various controversies surrounding his personal life were allegedly revealed. If the official line reported above is any indication, that unavailability may have been due to said rehabilitation. So while some may have thought Taika Waititi’s reshoots were executed because of the scandals themselves, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
This rather interesting scenario puts Will Arnett in a rather interesting position, both in his acting career and cinematic history overall. The actor is one of a handful of cases in recent years where controversial actors have been replaced after a film like Next Goal Wins has turned out a finished product. Previously, director Ridley Scott engaged in breakneck paced reshoots to sub out Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in 2017’s All The Money In The World, which led to the late actor being nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. More recently, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead saw Tig Notaro replacing Chris D’Elia in a process so seamless, she only got to physically act with one of her co-stars.
While the reasoning for the substitution may not be what some had thought, Mr. Arnett’s good fortunes are the end result that everyone can agree to celebrate. Not to mention, now that this big change has been made, there might be some traction on an announcement as to when we can see the Searchlight Pictures project in a theater near us. Though there’s always the possibility that, thanks to Disney’s strategy of debuting some 20th Century Studios/Searchlight Pictures titles like Vacation Friends as streaming exclusives, we might be seeing this Michael Fassbender-led film sooner than we thought.
At the moment, Next Goal Wins does not have a planned release date in the works; though the film is presumed to be debuting at some point in 2022. Meanwhile, Armie Hammer will still be appearing in 20th Century Studios’ Death on the Nile, which sets sail into theaters on February 11th. Will Arnett fans can catch Rumble in theaters on January 15th, or they can stream the film right now on Paramount+. For all other 2022 release schedule inquiries, you can head over to our official listing, and get the scoop on what to expect in the cinematic year to come.
