Late last week we learned that The Muppets director James Bobin and co-writer Nicholas Stoller were currently in the process of developing a sequel to Disney’s $154 million hit, but that co-writer and human star of the film Jason Segel would not take part of the writing due to his own heavy schedule. Disappointing, but those reports did hold out the hope that Segel would possibly be back to act in the film, if needed.
Unfortunately, in an interview with Collider, Segel stated that he won’t be back to appear in a new Muppet film either.
It’s true but it’s totally amicable. 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 (laughs).
Ever since his film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it was obvious that Segel was a Muppets fan and it certainly shows in the work he did on The Muppets screenplay. And I certainly have some qualms about a sequel moving forward without his involvement. But given who the character arc for both Segel’s character Gary and his muppet brother Walter, there is no driving story need to bring the character back.
Segel doesn’t close the door on all involvement with the revitalized franchise going forward though.
All I wanted to do was to set the stage for them to do whatever they wanted. 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.
I certainly wouldn’t rule out a quick cameo from the actor. In the meantime, you can continue to catch Segel on at least one more season of How I Met Your Mother after the current one ends, the new Duplass Brothers comedy Jeff Who Lives At Home which opens this week and the upcoming comedies The Five-Year Engagement and This Is Forty.
