If you are going to make a Baywatch movie — even one that’s a tongue-in-cheek satire of the original — there’s a few things you’ve got to have. You need men and women in red bathing suits. You need people running on the beach in slow motion. You need that magnificent theme song. You need at least one reference to Baywatch Nights. And you need David Hasslehoff and Pamela Anderson.

The former Mitch Buchannon already shot a part for the Baywatch movie and yesterday Dwayne Johnson, who stars in the film as the new Mitch, posted an Instagram photo with Pamela Anderson, the original C.J. Parker:

As The Rock notes they “couldn’t have made” the movie without her. And I suppose technically they could have, but they would have gotten a lot of “Where’s Pamela Anderson?!?” questions at the press junket. Although Anderson didn’t join the Baywatch series until the third season, she quickly became its most recognizable and popular star. Even while one moves Baywatch into the future, one must pay proper respect to the great roots of this mighty franchise.

Much like Johnson playing Hasselhoff’s old character, Kelly Rohrbach plays C.J. in the new movie, so I’m not sure how they’re going to integrate the old cast with the new. Since the Instagram photo of the two Mitches showed them both in costume together, I hope that Hasselhoff plays Mitch Prime, while Johnson is the Mitch of Earth-2, and the whole movie is about this group of well-toned lifeguards protecting the multiverse from a threat that is tearing down the walls of between dimensions. Only those who aren’t afraid to step into the light can save us. Baywatch opens in theaters on May 19, 2017.

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