Murder Mystery is one of Netflix’s most-watched original movies ever after it drew in 73 million viewers in the first four weeks it was available to stream, but it was still surprising when it was announced four months after it premiered that a sequel was in the works, if only for the fact that Adam Sandler hardly ever plays the same role more than once.
The Happy Madison head honcho has been headlining his own particular brand of comedy vehicles for over a quarter of a century, but with the exception of Sony’s animated Hotel Transylvania franchise, the fourth installment of which is set for release this August, Grown Ups is the only one of Sandler’s movies to ever get another outing.
Of course, the 25th anniversary of Happy Gilmore saw the fan favorite film capture everyone’s imagination once again, leading to calls for a new pic that would see the title hero and Shooter McGavin face off on the senior’s tour, an idea that Sandler admitted he could get behind. However, the 54 year-old was quick to follow that up by saying the internet has always been more invested in the prospect of a sequel than he is.
Naturally, though, the mere mention of a hypothetical Happy Gilmore 2 was enough to set the rumor mill in motion, with insider Daniel Richtman now claiming that the project is indeed in the works. Not only that, but he says that Sandler is also developing Billy Madison and The Waterboy sequels, which is something the tipster has shared before. The obvious roadblock here, however, is that the actor doesn’t own the rights to the trio of hits, which were made before Happy Madison Productions was founded in 1999.
To make even one of the three a reality, then, Netflix would either need to purchase the rights or Adam Sandler would have to venture to another studio to get them off the ground, because as per the terms of his contract with the streamer, Happy Madison couldn’t be involved and he’d essentially be a hired hand rather than the producer and creative driving force as well. That being said, Netflix clearly has more than enough money to pick up the rights if they wanted to, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
