Jason Segel Will Not Return for The Muppets Sequel

Posted by on March 5th, 2012   Filed under: Comedy
Source: Collider

Although The Muppets was one of the best reviewed movies of 2011 and now even has an Academy Award to its name (Bret McKenzie took home the Oscar for Best Original Song), the movie was a bit of a disappointment at the box office, taking in just $150 million worldwide. That’s a decent chunk of change, but a far cry from what many people had originally predicted. Still, it was enough to make it the highest grossing Muppet movie to date, and it was enough to prove to Disney that there is something there that they can build on. Last week it was announced that a sequel to The Muppets is indeed in the works, and that director James Bobin and writer Nicholas Stoller have signed on to return for the follow-up. The surprising thing, however, is that it looks like Jason Segel will not be involved at all — not as a writer nor as an actor. Can a sequel succeed without his name behind it?

Vulture first reported the news last week that Bobin and Stoller had reached a deal, noting that Segel was likely too busy to take part in the writing process. They did speculate, however, that he might still reprise his role as Gary on screen. Since then, Segel himself has shot down that possibility in an interview with Collider:

“My goal was to bring The Muppets back and I did that leaving them in very good hands, my writing partner and James Bobin the director. I did what I set out to do, and now I wanna pursue more human-related projects… I’m sure I’ll return in some capacity here and there, but that was half a decade of my life. Five years of hard work. I’m ready for a little puppet break.”

So there you have it. He’s not writing off the possibility of participating in a future Muppet movie, but it sounds like the immediate sequel is not something he wants to be a part of. I know that some people felt that Segel stole too much of the spotlight away from the Muppets themselves, so there will no doubt be some fans who are pleased to hear this news. On the flip side, however, the reboot was essentially Segel’s baby and he was the driving force behind it. It’s certainly very possible that his presence will be missed. What do you think, is the lack of Jason Segel good news or bad news for The Muppets sequel?



  • I loved seeing him with the Muppets, but truth be told the Muppets are bigger than Jason and will hopefully be making good movies for many more years.

    “He’s a Muppet of a man”

  • Anthony

    Jason Segel’s involvment (in the writing and casting) was the reason I saw the movie in the first place.

  • Was he thanked in the Oscar speech?

  • Jsin

    The muppets were not a flop, but it certainly wasn’t a success. 150 million worldwide, not domestically, isn’t great. And highest grossing muppet movie isn’t a compliment when the best ones were thirty years ago. Disney has a property here it can’t turn a profit on.

  • Segel’s involvement is the reason I didn’t see the movie even though he’s responsible for bringing the Muppets back to the big screen. Too much Segel, not enough Muppets. I’m glad he won’t be back.

    When adjusted for inflation, is it still the highest grossing Muppet movie?

    @Scott: I didn’t hear Segel’s name get mentioned in the acceptance speech.

  • Adjusted for inflation, The Muppet Movie made $206,509,960 domestically. So no, The Muppets wouldn’t still be the highest grossing movie in that case.

    Frank mentioned the acceptance speech snub on the podcast this week. It was the first I had heard of it but if you ask me, Segel doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would take that to heart.

  • It was just weird that they kept cutting to Segel smiling as he watched the speech and the guy thanked all these people but said nothing about him. Really felt like some backstage brouhaha was going down!