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It’s been a tumultuous few years (and then some) for Bam Margera due to the substance abuse issues that have impacted his personal and professional life. It would appear those problems have also affected the development of a couple of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater remakes where he’s nowhere to be found despite being included in the originals.
Bam Margera is best known for being a member of the Jackass crew that can trace its roots back to the world of skateboarding.
Co-creator and longtime director Jeff Tremaine was the editor of the skateboarding magazine that gave Johnny Knoxville his big break when it tapped him to film a video where he tested various weapons on himself.
That was made around the same time Margera (who was making a living as a professional skater) and a merry band of degenerates including Ryan Dunn and Brandon DiCamillo were filming themselves doing stunts of their own in Pennsylvania, and the two crews eventually linked up to start creating the equally beloved and idiotic movie and television magic they ended up bringing into the world.
Anyone who’s familiar with Jackass knows many of its members struggled with addiction issues; Dunn died in 2011 after crashing a car he was driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.196%, and Steve-O famously got sober after a well-documented descent to rock bottom in the late 2000s.
Margera, on the other hand, has had trouble getting a handle on the substance abuse issues that have led to a string of public incidents, arrests, and stints in rehab, and his behavior led to him being excluded from the filming of Jackass 4 (Tremaine when as far as to get a restraining order due to the fallout of the falling out).
His most recent attempt at recovery came after he ended up in jail for a probation violation after being pulled over last September under suspicion of drunk driving, but he’s thankfully avoided any more major trouble since then.
With that said, it would be pretty fair to describe his personal brand as “toxic” as things currently stand, and that appears to have impacted the lineup of skaters that will appear in the upcoming remakes of the third and fourth installment of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.
Margera made his franchise debut in THPS 3 and appeared in the follow-up (he was also on the cover of Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, which featured multiple Jackass members).
However, as Polygon notes, he’s absent from the list of the “Classic” skaters you can control in the games that will be released on July 11th, and all signs point to that being a conscious decision by the developers.
Bummer.