Latest Shocking Entertainment News: Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Friendship Ups and Downs Over the Years
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have produced tons of comedy classics together, but their partnership — and their friendship — came to a halt in 2019.
The duo first connected while working at Saturday Night Live in the mid-1990s. Ferrell joined the show as a cast member in September 1995 for the series’ 21st season, while McKay came on board as a writer.
Their first project together was 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The movie was so beloved by fans that the duo decided to make a sequel nearly a decade later. Over the next six years, however, their prolific partnership came to a halt. In April 2019, the pair decided to dissolve their company, Gary Sanchez Productions, after nearly 15 years, announcing that all projects in production at the time would be completed.
Six months later, McKay struck out on his own with Hyperobject Industries, while Ferrell proceeded with Gloria Sanchez Productions, which was originally spun off from Gary Sanchez to produce female-focused work.
Keep scrolling for a look back at McKay and Ferrell’s ups and downs over the years:
1995
The comedy partners met while working at SNL in the '90s. After the show was almost canceled following season 20, McKay and Ferrell helped revitalize its appeal along with new cast members Darrell Hammond, Cheri Oteri and David Koechner and new writers Steve Higgins, Paula Pell and Colin Quinn.
July 2004
The pair's first collaboration after their SNL exit, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, raked in more than $90 million at the box office and became a fan favorite, landing on several lists of best comedies of all time.
2006
McKay and Ferrell officially founded Gary Sanchez Productions, named after a fictional character, the "Paraguayan entrepreneur and financier" named Gary Sanchez. The company went on to produce films including Step Brothers, The Other Guys, The Campaign, Tammy, Daddy's Home and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
December 2013
McKay and Ferrell followed up the success of the first Anchorman with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, featuring cameos from Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Liam Neeson, Kanye West, Drake, Jim Carrey and many more.
December 2018
Holmes & Watson, starring Will Ferrell as Sherlock Holmes and John C. Reilly as Dr. John Watson, premiered after years of being stuck in development, but it bombed at the box office. McKay, who helped edit the film, later told Vanity Fair that the "thing was just in rough shape" when he was brought in to work on it.
April 2019
After expanding to produce TV shows, including Succession and Motherland: Fort Salem, the twosome decided to dissolve Gary Sanchez. “The two of us will always work together creatively and always be friends," they said in a joint statement at the time. "And we recognize we are lucky as hell to end this venture as such.”
September 2019
McKay cast Reilly in his still-untitled HBO limited series about the Los Angeles Lakers. The Vice director later pointed to this incident as the one that caused the end of his friendship with Ferrell months after they ended their business partnership.
October 2019
McKay launched his own production company, Hyperobject Industries, and entered into a five-year first-look deal to develop content with HBO and HBO Max.
November 2021
During an interview with Vanity Fair, McKay explained why he thought the Reilly casting in the Lakers series hurt his relationship with Ferrell. The Stranger Than Fiction star first found out about the news via Reilly, who called him to let him know that he'd gotten the part. “I f—ked up on how I handled that,” McKay explained. “It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book.” The director claimed that he's since reached out to his former comedy partner, but Ferrell hasn't returned his messages. “[He] took it as a way deeper hurt than I ever imagined and I tried to reach out to him, and I reminded him of some slights that were thrown my way that were never apologized for," McKay said. “The whole time it was like I was saying it out loud, ‘Let’s not become an episode of Behind the Music. Don’t let it happen.’ And it happened.”
December 2021
Speaking about safety protocols on film sets, McKay revealed that Ferrell could have been injured while filming Anchorman 2 because of a problem with a rig. "It was a scene where Ron Burgundy was going to hang himself. It was a silly joke," he recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. "For a half a second, the rig didn't operate properly and there was actual tension on the rope, but then it gave way and Will was OK. Thank God no one was hurt. We were sick about it for two days. We said, 'All right, let's stop. Let's have a meeting.'"The Step Brothers director said that the incident is one reason he's so careful on set. "It was really scary," he added.
February 2022
McKay opened up about dissolving the duo’s creative partnership amid casting drama for their Winning Time series. Despite rumors that Ferrell hoped to play Jerry Buss, the director alleged during a February 2022 Hollywood Reporter interview that Ferrell “was good” with Michael Shannon playing the role instead.After Shannon dropped out of the project one week before filming was slated to start, McKay offered the role to John C. Reilly without letting his former creative partner know.“It was at this weird moment where Will and I weren’t exactly hugging each other, even though there was nothing that terrible, and [John] called Will and said, ‘Hey, McKay just came to me with this,’” McKay alleged. “And Will was very hurt that I wasn’t the one to call him, and I should have. I f—ked up.”
2026
McKay told Business Insider in June 2026 that he's "open to the idea" of reconnecting with Ferrell after they decided to part ways as creative partners in 2019. "We always got along great, we were tremendous creative partners," McKay told the outlet about them previously founding production company Gary Sanchez Productions. McKay addressed what led to their rift, adding, "The only thing that caused acrimony between us was when we decided to end our production company, Gary Sanchez. And I know it was reported one way or the other, but that was really it." McKay told Business Insider that it was a "shame" because he had a "great creative partnership" with Ferrell. "I think both of us underestimated the complications that go with not just having a company, but a very successful company," McKay continued. "We had it for a long time and did a lot of cool projects." McKay pointed out that Ferrell had "publicly" said he didn't want to produce films. "So he was always half in and half out, but then he would love it and be proud of the company, but by the end, he wanted to move on," he said. He added: "It had become too much extra work; it was never his passion. I was really the one who wanted to produce, but a movie star's life is very different than a writer-director's life. So we split up. But life goes on. We had a great run." McKay clarified he had "no hard feelings," noting, "Who knows, we'll see what happens."
by Eliza Thompson
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