Professional skater and Jackass star Bam Margera will be included in the next major Tony Hawk skateboarding game after Hawk himself reportedly stepped in and forced Activison to add Margera to the game’s roster.
Officially announced earlier this month, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 is an upcoming remake of the third and fourth entries in Activision’s popular skateboarding series. Margera appeared in both Tony’s Hawk Pro Skater 3 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 back when they first launched on PS2. But when the THPS 3+4 were announced, Margera was missing from the remake’s roster of new and old skaters. Many attributed this to Margera’s many legal problems and widely reported substance abuse issues, which allegedly led to his firing from the production of the film Jackass Forever in 2020. But apparently, Margera is doing better and his friend Tony Hawk fought to make sure he was a part of the upcoming remake.
Pre-order Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4: CDKeys | GameStop
During a March 23 livestream of the skating podcast The Nine Club, co-host Roger Bagley claimed that Margera was added to THPS 3+4 at the last minute after Tony Hawk skated with the troubled former Jackass star earlier this month.
“Well, here’s what happened,” explained Bagley during the stream. “The game was already done. Tony called up Activision or whatever and was like ‘Hey, we’re putting Bam in the thing,’ and they’re like ‘We can’t.’ And he goes ‘No, you’re gonna do it,’ and basically made them fly Bam back out here to get body-scanned and everything else, and put him in [THPS 3+4].”
Kotaku has reached out to Activision about the reported return of Margera.
On March 24, TMZ corrobated the claims made in the podcast and reported that it had heard from sources that Hawk was impressed by how well Margera had cleaned himself up and how he’s trying to stay sober. At that point he seemingly was convinced that Margera deserved a spot in the remaster and pressured Activision to make it happen.
Margera hasn’t been featured in a Tony Hawk skateboarding game since 2007's Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, the last game developed by original creators Neversoft. In 2020's THPS 1+2 remake, he was removed from a poster featured in a remastered version of a THPS 2 level.
.