The Real Reason A Tommy Boy Sequel Never Happened, According To David Spade

Few "Saturday Night Live" cast members made a bigger impact in a short period of time than Chris Farley. From his debut on the show in 1990 to his tragic passing in 1997, Farley made a name for himself with his "go for broke" commitment to physical comedy and his charming, affable personality.

Farley played big parts in small roles for a couple of feature films alongside his "Saturday Night Live" cast members like Adam Sandler in "Airheads" or "Coneheads" with Dan Akroyd, but it's his starring role in "Tommy Boy" that made him an eternal star. The 1995 comedy stars Farley as an overgrown man-child forced to take the reins of his father's brake pad company, with poor David Spade forced to babysit him.

It's a classic odd couple comedy, with Spade's snarky comedic persona contrasting perfectly with Farley's "golly gee wiz" sincerity. Many say "Tommy Boy" is Farley's best movie, and while it wasn't a box office smash (it only made $32.6 million in theaters domestically), it went on to become a much larger success on the home media market. So, why hasn't "Tommy Boy 2" ever come to pass?

In an interview on Theo Von's podcast "This Past Weekend," David Spade talked about his collaborations with Chris Farley and how much his friend meant to him. When the subject of making a sequel to "Tommy Boy" came up, Spade revealed that he heard a pitch for what a potential sequel could look like circa 2023 or so:

"I was pitched a 'Tommy Boy 2' which was our kids are together [...] And I'm like, 'I just can't find a scenario with no Farley.' He was the whole movie. Even if it's a good title [...] it would be too much of a sellout."

Legacy sequels featuring the children of characters from earlier films are familiar territory for movie studios, so it's not surprising to hear that the same approach was pitched for a modern day "Tommy Boy" sequel. That being said, Spade felt strongly that while "it would have been a blast" if the project had been made back when Farley was still alive, "the magic in the bottle was Chris," and so, making the sequel without him is a nonstarter.

Luckily for us, we do have a sort-of sequel in "Black Sheep," which also stars Farley as an overgrown man-child on a road trip featuring Spade as his reluctant babysitter. And if you want to see more of the man behind the scenes, Paul Walter Hauser is set to star as Farley in a biopic directed by fellow funnyman Josh Gad.