NetflixWarning: The following contains spoilers about Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later. If you haven't begun streaming on Netflix yet, you may want to bookmark this page and return once you have. Proceed with caution.
When Adam Scott was revealed to be among the cast of Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer sequel series, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, the streaming service was amusingly cagey about exactly who the Parks and Recreation alum would be playing. And now that all eight episodes have dropped on Netflix, we understand the secrecy. After all, it's better to surprise your audience with the revelation that Bradley Cooper has been replaced.
Yes, you read that right.
When the premiere episode checks in with all the Camp Firewood counselors we fell in love with over the course of the cult 2001 movie and Netflix's 2015 prequel series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp as they return to camp for that 10-year reunion they planned at the end of the film, we learn that McKinley (Michael Ian Black) and Cooper's Ben are still together—and with child! Only, Ben's undergone some minor facial reconstructive surgery. And somehow, that nose job turned Cooper into Scott. (Cooper was unavailable, as he was busy directing and starring in A Star Is Born, but producers had already made plans for the character's storyline.)
"I'm reminded of the sequel to Vacation, European Vacation, and there's someone else who played Anthony Michael Hall's character, and it's just sort of ridiculous," co-creator/star Michael Showalter told EW of the switcheroo."I like unapologetically just swapping out the actor. The idea that seemed so silly was that he had a nose job and is worried that people won't recognize him, and the joke is that everybody recognizes him completely and says that you can barely notice it. Essentially what we're saying is: If Bradley Cooper got a nose job, he would look like Adam Scott."
Scott, an admitted Wet Hot superfan who almost appeared in First Day of Camp if it weren't for a scheduling conflict of his own, jumped at the opportunity to join the insanity when co-creator David Wain floated the idea his way.
"David just texted me and said, ‘Can you do Wet Hot?'" he told the magazine. "He gave me some rough dates and I just said, ‘Yeah, totally,' and he said, ‘Do you want me to call you and tell you about the character?' and I said, ‘No, I don't care'—because I wanted to do it because I love Wet Hot so much, not that I don't care. So then the next day he was like, ‘Okay, here it is,' and he told me and I thought, ‘Well, that's insane, but without question I will see what I can do. Sounds fun.' I would've come on and just stood in the background."
Bringing Scott aboard also meant that fans still mourning the loss of Parks and Rec were due for something really special when Ben reunites with Amy Poehler's Susie as they arrive at camp. "The character's name is Ben [like in Parks], so we did have a moment where we see each other and she screams ‘Ben!'" he recounted. "And we were both like ‘Whoa, okay. Hold on.'"
Are you loving the secret switch-up as much as we are? Sound off in the comments below!
Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later is available to stream now on Netflix.