After disappearing for over a decade, Disney has managed to bring back the Muppets in a big way.
The new Muppets film was one of my favorite films of 2011, and if that’s not enough, received great acclaim from critics, and drew a substantial box office profit. Unsurprisingly, Disney is already making plans for the next movie, with further plans to continue the franchise, if successful.
Jason Segel – the man behind the film – will not be returning, however. Segel spent years getting the Muppets back into the theaters. He pitched the film, wrote it, directed it, and even put himself in the film – as the star, and as a puppet version of himself – the two were brothers. He’s not being ousted, as he’s leaving the Muppets of his own volition.
“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,” he said in an interview with Collider.
“All I wanted to do was to set the stage for them to do whatever they wanted. 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.”
In the film, his character is forced to struggle with a decision to continue helping the Muppets make it big, or go back to his normal life. While the actor portrayed version of Segel went home, the puppet stayed with the Muppets. It seems almost like while Segel wrote the film, he was already struggling with the decision of whether or not to invest yet more of his life in the Muppets. Of course, I can think of a lot worse things to spend your life’s work on.
As a bonus, we just got this new clip of The Muppets parodying the upcoming Hunger Games film:
