Grown Ups 3 cast list reveals Adam Sandler still likes all the guys he used to like
It’s not new to note that, of all the films made under Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison umbrella, the Grown Ups movies function the most like subsidized vacations for Sandler and his buddies. This is, after all, the franchise that sees him palling around in vacation spots with an expansive cast of buddies that includes Kevin James, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Chris Rock, Nick Swardson, and more; it’s also one of several Happy Madison movies to make sure Sandler’s wife Jackie, his two daughters, and even his nephew Jared all had a semi-plausible reason to come along for the ride, thanks to recurring minor parts. But in the aftermath of Sandler and Netflix announcing back in May that they were bringing the gang back more than a decade after Grown Ups 2, you’d be forgiven for wondering how many of these guys—some of whom have, to put it mildly, steered pretty hard into their personal skids in the intervening 13 years—would be making the return trip.
Which just goes to show that you don’t understand the giant and all-encompassing heart of The Sandman, because the just-announced cast list for the movie—now being directed by Workaholics and What We Do In The Shadows‘ Kyle Newacheck—reads pretty much like a cast list for the last two Grown Ups movies. Yes, in case you were wondering, that includes Schneider, who missed Grown Ups 2, but appeared with a returning Sandler, James, Spade, Rock, Salma Hayek Pinault, Maya Rudolph, Maria Bello, and others in a photo announcing the start of the new film’s production. In addition to the photo, press copy from Netflix confirmed that SNL alums Ellen Cleghorne, Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, and Cheri Oteri would all be back for the movie, joined by Shaquille O’Neal, Swardson, and newcomers Julie Bowen, Deon Cole, and Bailee Madison. (Sandler’s kids are still in the mix, too, obviously, because what are you going to do, leave the kids at home while Mom and Dad are making a movie?)
The tagline for Grown Ups 3 promises that “Now that their kids are all grown up, the gang is finally free to go on the ultimate adventure”—not that the previous two movies in the saga suggested that the burdens of child-rearing typically gave these guys much pause when engaging in their various fitfully entertaining antics. There’s no official word yet on when the film might arrive on the streaming airwaves.
