Diksha Sundriyal
A sequel to ‘Grown Ups,’ 2013’s ‘Grown Ups 2’ brings back Adam Sandler and his famous friends for another go at a series of hilarious events that take place over a weekend. The sequel picks up with Sandler’s Lenny moving back to his hometown of Stanton and waiting for summer to commence. It is the last day of school, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have anything new to offer, as a lot changes over the couple of days that Lenny and his family and friends spend together. While most of the original cast returns for the follow-up movie, one important character is missing: Rob Schneider’s Rob Hilliard. What happened to him, and why didn’t Schneider reprise his role in the sequel? SPOILERS AHEAD
Several Factors Prevented Schneider’s Return to Grown Ups 2
In ‘Grown Ups,’ Rob Schneider plays the role of Rob Hilliard, who has a thing for older women, which makes him the butt of his friends’ jokes. While he plays a significant role in the first film, he remains absent in the entirety of the second film and isn’t even mentioned. The reason behind his absence was chalked up to Schneider’s unavailability due to several reasons, from scheduling conflicts to major developments in his personal life. At the time, Schneider was involved in making his own sitcom for CBS, titled ‘Rob.’ His wife, Patricia, was also pregnant at the time, and Schneider wanted to focus on his family. However, his sudden absence from Sandler’s films led to a lot of speculation about a falling out between the two, though the rumors were never confirmed.
Adam Sandler is famously known for casting his friends in his movies and working with people with him he has an established relationship. Schneider is one of the people who became a recurring face in Sandler’s movies over the years. The two struck up a friendship during their time on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and went on to work on several movies together, starting with 1998’s ‘The Waterboy.’ Due to him being a regular presence on Sandler’s projects, his sudden absence raised alarms among the fans. Schneider is the only major actor to not return for ‘Grown Ups 2’ and the film made up for his absence by bringing in Nick Swardson, another actor that has regularly collaborated with Sandler. Swardson plays the role of a drunk bus driver who brings in a completely different form of comedy compared to Schneider’s Rob Hilliard.
In an interview, Schneider revealed that apart from the scheduling conflict, money was also a factor in him not showing up for ‘Grown Ups 2.’ While he said that the unexpected situation of landing his own TV series created the issue of scheduling two things at the same time while handling stuff at home, he also added that, at the end of the day, “they should have paid [him] a lot of money” to work on the sequel. Reportedly, the scheduling conflict story was not accepted by some fans because Schneider’s show had already been canceled by the time production began on Sandler’s film, which further gave ground for the problems between the actors as the primary reason for the absence of Rob Hilliard.
The conspiracy theories about Sandler and Schneider not working together were quashed when the latter, once again, started showing up in Sandler’s productions and has been a regular since. The duo worked together on 2015’s ‘The Ridiculous 6,’ followed by ‘Sandy Wexler,’ ‘Home Team,’ ‘Hubie Halloween,’ and ‘Leo,’ with the duo either starring together or Sandler working behind the scenes.
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