Will Forte Says His SNL Spin-off MACGRUBER Series Will Keep Fans "Satisfied and Grossed Out"
SNL star Will Forte is bringing back his ridiculous MacGyver-like character, MacGruber, for another spin at the NBC streamer, Peacock. This time, the goofy former special operative will be back for a series, and according to the star, fans of the character won’t be disappointed.
Our friends at /Film were able to talk to Forte recently about the series, and when they asked him about switching to a series format, he said:
We were originally going to try to do a MacGruber 2. And then, somewhere along the way, we decided that maybe it would be fun to try to do it as a series. For different platforms that would be interested in doing MacGruber, it makes more sense, budget-wise, for what we’re needing to make; it makes more sense to do a limited-run series than a movie. So we just started thinking about it in terms of a series instead and figured out this fun season arc. We’re pretty excited by what we’ve come up with, but we’re just waiting to see if they’ll let us do it.
When asked what plot details he could discuss, Forte said:
It takes place about seven or eight years after the end of the movie. So it picks up not right where the movie leaves off, but we explain the seven years [after MacGruber]. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say and what I’m not allowed to say. The thing I will say is if people liked the movie, I think they will like this series as well. It was nerve-racking because Jorma [Taccone] and John [Solomon] and I really were excited about how the movie turned out, and proud of the movie, and so we didn’t want to do something just to do it. We wanted to do something that we felt people who liked the movie would hopefully like as much as that. We’re pretty happy with how things are going. Right now, it’s at the first draft stages of a lot of the scripts. So there’s a lot of stuff that I can’t wait to get in and tinker with and just pare it down and just make it funnier and tighter.
They also asked if character KFBR392 would be coming back to the series. Forte got a kick out of this, and responded:
I don’t think so [laughing]. There certainly are a couple things like that that we touch on. But, for the most part, [we’re] just moving into new territory. But still, the tone of it is the exact same tone. We just didn’t want to make it be like a greatest hits from the movie. But people will be satisfied and grossed out enough [laughing].
So it sounds like it will be just as ridiculous and over-the-top as ever. I think TV is a better format for the series, because there are so many different ways you can take a show like this. It should be fun to watch, and I’ll be giving it a shot to see if it holds up for sure. Are you excited for it?