One of the most surprising themes in the recently released Happy Gilmore 2 has to be loss. With the 2025 movie paying tribute to legacy cast members who are no longer with us, there’s a fair amount of heartbreak mixed in with the laughs. However, there’s an easter egg in an early scene from Adam Sander’s Netflix subscription driver I totally didn’t spot - until fans started to point it out.
As Happy Gilmore decides to try to golf again in his Netflix revival, there’s a moment where a golf shack attendant is watching some TV. On first blush you wouldn’t think much of it, but a user from Twitter made a discovery that spotted this inclusion of the late Cameron Boyce:
According to another report from Parade, the moment included in Happy Gilmore 2 was identified as coming from an episode of the Disney Channel series Jessie. Seemingly pulled from Season 2, Episode 11, “A Pain in the Rear Window,” the sequence shows a young Boyce spying on a neighbor with a pair of binoculars.
The late actor who played Adam Sandler’s son in the Grown Ups movies, Cameron Boyce’s untimely passing in 2019 was a shock to fans who had also followed his career through other Disney Channel originals like the Descendants movies. Through the years Sandler and others have offered fond memories in the honor of Boyce, providing a loving reminder that this talent gone before his time is still very much in people’s hearts.
This is yet another entry into the bittersweet lineup of references to Happy Gilmore actors who’ve passed over time, but whose presence can still be felt in the new picture. Our own Corey Chichizola even spoke to the cast about Happy Gilmore 2’s touching memorials, a conversation that highlighted how Happy and nemesis Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) takes place in a graveyard that literally highlights those dearly departed friends.
I don’t think anyone would have expected the return of Happy Gilmore to be this reflective on mortality. Then again, the story about how rewrites prompted by Carl Weathers’ passing changed Happy Gilmore 2 from its original form does make a lot more sense now. Which only makes Adam Sandler saving a special spot for Cameron Boyce’s memory even more appropriate.
What could have been a return to just jackassing around on a golf course got a little bit deeper over time. Which means that the Happy Gilmore 2 you were expecting might not be the movie you meet on your streaming device of choice.
That may be part of why the critical reception for the picture has been a mixed bag, so keep that in mind as you make your way to the fairway. For those with an open mind, Adam Sandler and company have teed up this experience decades in the making, only on Netflix.
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