Nearly three decades after the release of Happy Gilmore, a sequel is on the way — and co-star Julie Bowen is still surprised she was asked to return.
The first film follows Adam Sandler‘s unlikely golf hero Happy, with Bowen as Virginia Venit, the pro golf tour PR director who serves as Happy’s love interest. The official trailer for Happy Gilmore 2 was released at Netflix’s Tudum event on Saturday, as Bowen told The Hollywood Reporter when she heard it was happening, “I thought, ‘Well I won’t be in it.’”
“And that was OK — it was like Virginia Venit, it’s been 30 years, he’s got a hottie. He’s got some little bitty on the side, like a cart girl,” she said of her assumptions of Sandler’s character. “As a matter of fact my children told me, before I was even told officially that there was a Happy Gilmore sequel, my now 18-year-old said, ‘Mom, I hear they’re doing a sequel and he’s with Sydney Sweeney as a cart girl.’”
It was indeed a rumor online that Sweeney had been cast in the film, and though it ended up not being true, Bowen joked, “I went, I’m hurt and I so respect that move. Of course, why wouldn’t you? So when I got the call that I was actually in it, I was like, ‘Are you sure? Come on.’”
There will be plenty of new additions to the sequel though, with Bad Bunny, Margaret Qualley, Benny Safdie, Travis Kelce, Kym Whitley and Eminem all making appearances. Bowen revealed she is a Bad Bunny superfan and was particularly excited to have him on set.
“Seeing Bad Bunny on set I was just like, ‘Oh, I can’t actually look you in the eye, I’m going to have to walk away,’ and I did. I think he was offended and I had to circle back and now I made it worse,” she teased. “I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want to meet her heroes because I think I’m just going to be a jackass.”
Happy Gilmore 2 starts streaming July 25 on Netflix.