According to longtime Jackass star Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had a considerable impact on the content of Jackass Forever, the series' upcoming fourth feature film.
Acuña discussed Jackass Forever during his recent appearance on The Nine Club with Chris Roberts, explaining that as a result of the pandemic, fans can expect fewer public pranks this time around, with most of the humor being at the expense of the Jackass cast themselves. "This next one -- because of COVID, and we couldn't fly and mess with people and all that -- it's all... I'll just say this: it's backyard 'fuck each other up' stuff. That's all it is. And that's all I can say about it," he said.
When asked if he got badly hurt filming the movie, Acuña responded, "Yes, yes, yes. I'll just say yes." As far as how filming Jackass Forever compared to filming the previous three Jackass movies, he simply said, "This one hurt more."
Jackass Forever began filming just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit early last year. According to Acuña, Paramount Pictures ended up using the film as a "guinea pig" of sorts in order to figure out how it could resume its other productions. "We started before COVID, we took the COVID break, and Paramount used us as the guinea pig to see how studios could get back into filming," he explained. "And we had to do all the tests, and do it all. And they're like, 'Well, [the] Jackass guys did it.' It was then used as a tool to get the other ones going... But, you know, we did all the COVID tests, we did everything and we pulled it."
Acuña also briefly touched on how discussions for a fourth mainline Jackass film came about -- and reiterated how COVID-19 changed things. "It was like, 'Okay, do you think we can do one? We're older now.' And it was like, 'Well, let's do one. Maybe it'll just be fun this time.' 'Okay, let's make it fun!' But no, COVID made us beat each other up again." To Acuña's point, not counting Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, the most recent Jackass film -- Jackass 3D -- hit theaters 11 whole years ago in 2010.
Set for release on Oct. 22, Jackass Forever features returning cast members Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Danger Ehren and Preston Lacy. The film has also added new main cast members like Sean "Poopies" McInerney, Jasper Dolphin, Zach Holmes, Eric Manaka, Compston "Darshark" Wilson and Rachel Wolfson, not to mention a slew of guest stars. A trailer for the film is slated to drop next week.
Source: YouTube