Will Ferrell‘s role in his upcoming Netflix series has a lot in common with the return of one of Adam Sandler‘s most iconic movie characters. At Netflix Upfront on May 15, 2024, the streamer announced that a new comedy series created by and starring Will Ferrell is in the works. Ferrell co-created the series with fellow comedian Ramy Youssef and writer-producer Josh Rabinowitz. Youssef will also star alongside Ferrell in an undisclosed role and serve as showrunner and executive producer with Rabinowitz.
This Netflix series already marks a major first for Ferrell in the TV world. Though he famously got his big break as a main cast member on Saturday Night Live and has played guest roles on sitcoms like The Office and 30 Rock, this will serve as Ferrell’s first lead role in a scripted comedy show. Limited details have been revealed, but the series bears one major similarity with an upcoming project involving fellow SNL alum Adam Sandler that was confirmed the same day as Ferrell’s Netflix show.
The same day Netflix announced that Will Ferrell will star as a “fictional golf legend” in his new series GOLF, the streamer also confirmed the upcoming legacy sequel to Adam Sandler’s 1996 golf comedy Happy Gilmore. Co-written by Sandler with his longtime writing partner, Tim Herlihy, Happy Gilmore stars Sandler as the titular character, an incompetent hockey player who enters a pro golf tournament to save his grandmother’s home from foreclosure after discovering his untapped talent in the sport.
Sandler already confirmed Happy Gilmore 2 was in development with Netflix in April, but the streamer had yet to give the official word until now. Sandler has released a ton of Netflix titles after inking a development deal with the streamer in 2015 under his production company, Happy Madison (a combination of Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, his first feature collaboration with Herlihy in 1995), but Happy Gilmore 2 marks his first Netflix sequel to a non-Netflix property. Story details have yet to be revealed, but Happy Gilmore 2 will no doubt see Sandler’s titular goofball returning to the green.
At the moment, neither GOLF nor Happy Gilmore 2 have been given release dates. However, the fact that they were both announced at Netflix Upfront suggests that Happy Gilmore 2 and GOLF could be arriving around the same time, pitting Ferrell and Sandler against each other in a (friendly) battle of the Netflix golf comedies. If they do end up releasing in tandem, it could be a fun promo or crossover opportunity for Netflix if Sandler made a cameo as Happy Gilmore in GOLF.
While both GOLF and Happy Gilmore 2 are exciting projects for their respective comedians, the stakes are much higher for Sandler’s Happy Gilmore sequel. There is a certain novelty to GOLF given that it’s Will Ferrell‘s first scripted comedy show, which comes with its own set of expectations. However, as the long-awaited follow-up to a ’90s cult classic, Happy Gilmore 2 is under a lot more pressure.Happy Gilmore 2 will have to not just live up to the original Adam Sandler comedy and recapture what fans loved about it, but actually feel worth the wait after nearly 30 years.