MacGruber star and Saturday Night Live icon Will Forte admits that he is aware no one knows his character had a streaming series.
During an interview segment with Total Film in which the interviewer lobs character quotes, to be responded to as if they were questions, Forte was hit with, "One thing I do know, at the end of the day, Cunth, I'm gonna rip your dick off and shove it in your mouth. And that is non-negotiable. Who's first?" to which the star replied, "I know that one! I got to say that to Val Kilmer." Forte noted that despite the original MacGruber feature film adaptation of the SNL sketch series of the same name bombing at the box office, he and the cast and crew were still "super proud" of their work. "And then cut to 10 years later, we got the chance to make a series out of MacGruber on Peacock, which nobody knows it's on! But how lucky we were to get to have that experience again."
Will Forte as MacGruber on SNL
The first MacGruber sketches premiered on Saturday Night Live in January 2007, and star Forte as the titular character who is a living spoof of Richard Dean Anderson's MacGyver. Much like the original that MacGruber satirized, MacGruber is a special agent who is tasked with disarming some sort of explosive devise in each episode. The sketches frequently saw Forte's character thwarted by his own incompetence, even while his assistant (originally portrayed by Maya Rudolph, later by Kristen Wiig) and guest stars did their best to keep him on track.
In 2010, Forte and Wiig starred alongside Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer, and Maya Rudolph in a MacGruber feature film which was largely derided by critics and audiences. In December 2021, a prequel series of the same name premiered on Peacock, with Forte, Wiig, and Phillippe reprising their previous roles, while Sam Elliott, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Zane, and Timothy V. Murphy all made their debuts. MacGruber ran for 8 episodes across a single season, which was received far better than the film.
Forte is next set to hit the silver screen in Warner Bros. upcoming Coyote vs Acme, with the star set to portray Looney Tunes' Wile E. Coyote. The film will see John Cena portray the film's main antagonist, a defense lawyer for the ACME corporation and former boss of Wile E.'s own attorney. Forte will also be starring in Pixar's first long-form television series, Win or Lose, a sports-centric series in which Forte's Coach Dan leads a middle school softball team as they head into their championship game.
All 8 episodes of MacGruber are available for streaming on Peacock. Coyote vs Acme crashes into theaters on July 21, with Win or Lose set to debut on Disney+ later this year.
Source: Total Film