The former 'Two and a Half Men' colleagues are working together again.
Charlie Sheen is reuniting with Chuck Lorre.
The Two and a Half Men star has joined Lorre's upcoming new Max series, How to Be a Bookie, according to multiple reports. Sheen will recur in the series, which is led by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco.
Warner Bros. TV and Max declined to comment.
News of Sheen and Lorre's professional reunion comes more than a decade after Sheen was fired from Two and a Half Men after he called Lorre a "clown" and a "stupid little man." Around that same time, Sheen took part in an eyebrow-raising viral sit-down interview with ABC News, where he expressed that he had "tiger blood" and was "winning," and entering rehab.
As a result of Sheen's Two and a Half Men termination in March 2011, his character was killed off on the popular sitcom though it was later revealed in the 2015 series finale that he had been alive all this time. Though Sheen did not appear in the episode, his character died after a piano fell on him.
“I know a lot of you might be disappointed that you didn’t get to see Charlie Sheen in tonight’s finale. For the record, he was offered a role,” Lorre wrote at the time, explaining Sheen's absence in the Two and a Half Men swan song.
“Our idea was to have him walk up to the front door in the last scene, ring the doorbell, then turn, look directly into the camera and go off on a maniacal rant about the dangers of drug abuse. He would then explain that these dangers only applied to average people. That he was far from average. He was a ninja warrior from Mars. He was invincible,” Lorre continued. “And then we would drop a piano on him.”
Lorre later shared that Sheen didn't think the scene was "funny," which was why he ultimately decided not to take part.
Years later, Sheen's Two and a Half Men co-star, Jon Cryer, reflected on the sitcom's tumultuous run.
"It was such a crazy firestorm. Even internationally, you know? It was like the biggest thing," Cryer recalled to ET in 2022.
He revealed that he and Lorre even considered ending the show, so as to not facilitate Sheen's increasingly erratic behavior.
"I think there was a moment where Chuck Lorre and I were looking at each other and we said, 'It's not worth this show going on if going on enables Charlie Sheen to kill himself. If giving him enough money to do whatever the thing is that ends his life, you know, we don't want to be a part of that,'" Cryer explained. "And I think, actually, when Charlie was let go from the show, the first thought amongst most of us was, 'OK, we're done. This has been a great thing but we're done at this point.'"
How to Be a Bookie follows a veteran bookie (Maniscalco) as he struggles to survive the impending legalization of sports gambling, increasingly unstable clients, family, co-workers and a lifestyle that bounces him around every corner of Los Angeles, high and low.
Currently in production in Los Angeles, the eight-episode series stars Omar J. Dorsey, Jorge Garcia, Andrea Anders, Vanessa Ferlito and Maxim Swinton. Lorre co-created the series with Nick Bakay.
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