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Carl Weathers isn’t done acting just yet. The popular Mandalorian and Rocky star passed away last week, leaving behind memorable characters and an iconic resume. Weathers recently appeared in teasers for FanDuel’s Super Bowl commercial focused on the outcome of a live field goal attempt by former NFL star Rob Gronkowski. Despite his death, Weathers will still appear in the final commercial, albeit not as originally envisioned.
Variety reports though that FanDuel intends to make some unspecified changes to its commercial after consulting with Weathers’ family. “The family has been very supportive that they would still like to see Carl in the work,” FanDuel’s Andrew Sneyd said.
“We need to change what we are doing in the Bowl. The live event itself carries forward and as is. Rob will kick the field goal and he will be even more inspired to make it. He really enjoyed meeting Carl and found him to be such an optimistic and energetic person,” added Sneyd. Gronkowski’s kick will take place just before gameplay starts, with a follow-up commercial to appear during the Super Bowl. The changes are focused on how Weathers is portrayed in the commercial.
“We had built a master. One is an edit if he makes the kick and we have an edit if he misses. That content we had in those masters wouldn’t be appropriate for us to do anymore,” Sneyd explained. “Since the news of Carl’s passing came, we have been working with editors to help us get back to something that does make sense.”
Weathers had done previous commercial works for Shriners hospitals, PGA Tour Superstore–where he reprised his roles as Chubbs from Happy Gilmore–and Scott’s Miracle-Gro. You can check out our roundup to get a look at all of the early Super Bowl commercials released so far.
