Scandals of Elf from sacked babies and actor swaps to Will Ferrell 'feud that killed sequel'

Christmas comedy Elf remains a seasonal favourite, but the making of it came with a hearty dose of drama - we look back on the most scandalous moments as Buddy makes a return in Asda's Christmas advert

It's the ultimate Christmas film of all time, but the scandals of Elf meant there was never a sequel.

The 2003 movie has been a firm favourite since it first came out, and Will Ferrell's Buddy the Elf quickly became a household name. But while Elf captured everyone's hearts in the classic movie, there were some murky secrets and scandals that rocked the Hollywood film set.

From feuds to children being fired, the bubbly Christmas film almost looked completely different. Here's five offscreen dramas fans might be surprised to learn about - and the reason why there may never be a sequel.

1. Jim Carrey walked away

The script for Elf was written back in 1993 with Grinch star Jim Carrey in mind for the lead. Back then, he was yet to become a household name with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, but by the time the project got the green light 10 years later, Jim had moved on. And so Saturday Night Live comedian Will Ferrell stepped into one of his first roles since leaving the show.

2. They fired baby Buddy

You're never too young to get sacked, as proven when twin boys, both with curly blonde hair, were given their marching orders. The babies were supposed to play a young Buddy and smile and crawl on demand, but instead, all they did was cry. In the end, brunette triplet girls had to be drafted in to replace them.

3. The film made Will Ferrell sick

Buddy's penchant for maple syrup and sweets had a horrible side effect for actor Will, who suffered agonising headaches and insomnia as a result. "That was tough. I ingested a lot of sugar in this movie and I didn't get a lot of sleep," he told The Sun.

"I constantly stayed up. But anything for the movie, I'm there. If it takes eating a lot of maple syrup, then I will - if that's what the job calls for."

4. Zooey Deschanel wasn't first choice to play Jovie

There were several actresses in the running to play Buddy's love interest and reluctant Gimbles elf Jovie and New Girl actress Zooey only got an audition after the chosen star pulled out.

"I went in as a backup. The person they cast couldn't do it," she told Variety. "A lot of the parts I got early in my career, I was filling in for someone else who had dropped out last minute."

As for the blonde hair, the naturally brown-haired star revealed she had dyed it for another audition that came to nothing, but Elf bosses insisted she keep it. "What is funny is I had dyed my hair for a screen test for a movie that never happened," she said.

"I had a meeting for Elf while I was blonde, and I asked them if I could dye my hair back brown. They said, 'No, we want you to look the way you did in your audition.'"

4. The controversial shower scene

Buddy famously discovers Jovie's amazing singing talent when he barges into the work changing rooms while she's in the shower and overhears her singing Baby, It's Cold Outside.

"I didn't know you were naked in the shower," he tells a horrified Jovie as she wraps herself in the shower curtain, but some viewers didn't buy it and claimed Buddy knew full well what he was doing.

"Buddy does know what a shower is, and he most certainly knew she was naked!" one fan wrote on Reddit. "Buddy was actually trying to peep on Zooey while she was in the shower," the fan continued. "And played his fetish off as innocence."

Others slammed the 'woke' criticism, and Zooey addressed the backlash, defending the film and the intentions of that scene. "It's funny because obviously everyone knows it's not appropriate to walk in the girls' bathroom when someone's showering, but he's so believable as this guileless elf," she said. "It's weird he's in there, but you totally buy that his intentions are pure and innocent."

5. The 'feud' that killed the sequel

Will once revealed he turned down a staggering $29million to shoot a sequel, telling The Guardian: "I killed the idea of a sequel. $29m does seem a lot of money for a guy to wear tights, but it's what the marketplace will bear."

So what happened? According to actor James Caan, who played Buddy's dad Walter Hobbs, there will never be a second movie due to an alleged disagreement between Will and director Jon Favreau.

"We were gonna do it and I thought, 'Oh my God, I finally have a franchise movie. I can make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do,'" James previously told US radio show, The Fan in Cleveland.

"The director and Will didn't get along very well. Will wanted to do it, and he didn't want the director, and he had it in his contract. It was one of those things." In 2016 Jon Favreau said doing a follow up would be a 'big gamble'.

"If I don’t do anything I'd be very happy with what it is. The minute you take it on, you try to add on to something, you always run the risk of diminishing from the original," he told Yahoo! movies. "I do have tremendous fondness for that film and you don’t want to do anything to screw up the legacy of it."

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