When Happy Gilmore 2 premieres during the 2025 movie schedule, it'll have been nearly 30 year since the original movie hit theaters. The classic comedy still stands as one of the best movies of the '90s, and that’s due in great part to its great cast, who more than delivered. One of the highlights was Christopher McDonald's performance as the smug Shooter McGavin, who has some great scenes and lines of dialogue. Now, it would seem that one of the bester McGavin moments was the result of McDonald trying to adlib only to space out.
Christopher McDonald talked with The Movie Dweeb and shared some details about Adam Sandler's long-awaited golf-centric sequel. As seen on the page’s YouTube, the Hacks actor recalled a now-iconic exchange between McGavin and Gilmore. It's the scene in which the two make a bet about golfing, as McGavin feels he has the upper hand ("I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast"), but Gilmore has a retort locked and loaded. McDonald revealed it was the first scene he filmed for the movie and his moment of improv, which felt lackluster to him, worked perfectly:
...And I was supposed to just walk away, but, I turned around and went, ‘No!’
Honestly, the line worked so well and really helped to inform Shooter McGavin's personality. Also, the Flubber alum’s instinct paid off, because the dialogue truly did help to create more comedic tension within the film. Even today, I still say that the actor was absolutely incredible in the role, and he knew it then, too. He shared that he remembered realizing the character would be infamous because, everywhere he went, people recognized him as Shooter.
During his recent interview, the Watcher alum later expanded on the misstep of not being able to go beyond the one-word response and also explaining why he was ultimately fine with that:
[And] I could not come up with something, right, as Shooter, and that kind of let you know what kind of a petulant, kind of entitled country club boy he was.
It’s not surprising that Christopher McDonald couldn’t expand the comedic moment, but he’s right when he says that it didn’t need anything else. McGavin is the epitome of that "entitled country club boy" archetype that can have viewers rolling their eyes at least once a scene. The Grease 2 alum was a perfect choice to play a mean man-child like that, and I can’t wait to see him in the sequel. (Adam Sandler dropped a big teaser over the holidays, in case you missed it!)
We’ll have to wait and see if Shooter McGavin has any shining moments that rival the ones in its 1996 predecessor, which some would argue is Adam Sandler's best movie. I'm eager to see if lightning strikes twice but, with Sandler, Christopher McDonald and others on board, I'm feeling confident.
Happy Gilmore is available on VOD. A release date has yet to be announced for the sequel, but know that you'll want to have an active Netflix subscription if you want to check it out.
