'The Sandlot' Is Being Turned into a TV Series Starring the Original Cast
To paraphrase the immortal words of Babe Ruth (or “Baby Ruth,” if you ask Smalls), “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” And, thanks to the current reboot craze, a few beloved characters from a super-nostalgic movie will see their legacy live on. Yep, it’s finally happening, ‘90s kids — nearly three decades after the film’s original release, The Sandlot is being turned into a TV series sequel. Even better? The original cast will reportedly reprise their roles.
The film’s writer-director, David Mickey Evans, revealed the reboot news to The Rain Delay podcast on Thursday. “I just sold a Sandlot television show. We’re about to get an order for the first two seasons,” he told host Cooperstown Kurt. Although Evans wouldn’t specify who would be streaming the series, he did hint, “I know who’s going to stream it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out right now.”
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Evans clearly realized now-adult fans of the 1993 film would be dying for details, so he continued. “I already got all the original cast members back. It takes place in 1984, when they’re all like 33 years old and they all have children of their own, and that’s all I can tell you,” he said.
Although sequel movies to The Sandlot do exist, none managed to capture audiences’ hearts the way the original did. That’s arguably a testament to the young cast: Tom Guiry (Scotty Smalls), Mike Vitar (Benjamin “Benny the Jet” Rodriguez), Patrick Renna (Hamilton “Ham” Porter), Chauncey Leopardi (Michael “Squints” Palledorous), Marty York (Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan), Brandon Quintin Adams (Kenny DeNunez), Grant Gelt (Bertram Grover Weeks), Shane Obedzinksi (Tommy “Repeat” Timmons) and Victor DiMattia (Timmy Timmons). If by some strange rift in the universe you missed it, the actors played a group of neighborhood boys who bond over baseball — including, naturally, pickling “The Beast.”
While Evans told The Rain Delay that he had all of the original cast committed, it’s unclear whether he is also referring to the adult characters in the film. Karen Allen and Denis Leary played the mother and stepfather of Smalls, respectively, while James Earl Jones played former baseball pro Mr. Mertle. We also don’t yet know if the sequel TV series will remain true to the futures that Smalls revealed for each of the characters at the close of the cult classic. Most memorably, Rodriguez became a star player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Smalls followed along as a sports commentator, and “Squints” married Wendy Peffercorn and the couple had nine kids.
Regardless of what route Evans has chosen for the TV sequel series, one thing’s certain: This won’t be the last we see of the boys from the Sandlot. 20th Century Fox currently has a prequel project in development, co-written by Evans and new writer Austin Reynolds. In other words, you can keep lamenting, “You’re killin’ me, Smalls!” for the foreseeable future (and even more people will understand the reference).
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