Everybody’s favorite foul-mouthed teddy bear, Ted, is returning, years after the last film in the franchise. But this time, “Ted” isn’t being crafted as a sequel film. Instead, like many franchises that are being dusted off and pulled from the shelf by mega studios, “Ted” is heading to a streaming service as a series.
According to Peacock, the streaming platform has ordered a season of “Ted,” based on the film series of the same name, with Seth MacFarlane in negotiations to return as the voice of the title character. In the films, Ted is the name of a teddy bear that comes to life and causes all sorts of trouble for his lifelong pal, a human man from Boston. In the original film and the sequel, which have collectively grossed more than $750 million worldwide, Mark Wahlberg led the cast as the human opposite Ted. However, it doesn’t appear as if Wahlberg is attached in any way to this new series.
The new “Ted” series will be executive produced by MacFarlane and Erica Huggins for Fuzzy Door and is part of the deal with MRC Television and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group. Again, it’s unclear how involved MacFarlane will be in the creation of the series, but you have to assume this will be a show that will have the creator’s fingerprints all over it, as he served as a director, writer, and producer on both feature films.
“Ted” marks the second series that MacFarlane has in development for Peacock. Previously, it was announced that he’s working on “The End is Nye” hosted by Bill Nye. Obviously, Nye’s series is a very different beast than “Ted,” but it shows how much Peacock believes in “The Family Guy” creator.