Muppets Now will premiere exclusively on Disney+ in 2020, Disney announced Friday during its bi-annual D23 Expo.
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A tweet from the official Kermit the Frog Twitter account shares the newest entry in the Muppets canon is an unscripted short-form series that promises a slew of celebrity guest stars who have yet to be announced.
Coming exclusively to #DisneyPlus in 2020, @TheMuppets proudly present MUPPETS NOW, a new short-form unscripted series! I’d love to tell you more, but Joe The Legal Weasel is right behind me. Gulp! pic.twitter.com/UCXdaopQJR
— Kermit the Frog (@KermitTheFrog) August 24, 2019
“I’m so [redacted] to announce The Muppets’ brand-new, unscripted, short-form [redacted] series,” the tweet reads. “It’s called ‘Muppets Now‘ premiering only on Disney+ in 2020! It’s going to be [redacted]! And best of all? It will feature celebrity guest stars like [redacted]! We’re so [redacted] to share more with you on [redcated]. Thanks to the lovers, the dreams, and you!”
It’s unclear if this is the same series that was reportedly in the works from Frozen star Josh Gad. In February, it was reported Gad was teaming with Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (Once Upon a Time) for a new Disney+ Muppets series expected to debut on the streaming service in 2020.
That project, titled Muppets Live Another Day, was said to take place immediately after the events of 1984’s The Muppets Take Manhattan and would have centered on Kermit disbanding the gang, only to reassemble them when Rowlf mysteriously goes missing.
Disney last revived the Muppets with an eponymous “mockumentary” sitcom that aired on ABC and was more adult-oriented in nature. The series underwent a mid-season showrunner change in the face of failing ratings and was ultimately cancelled by the network after one season.
Muppets veteran performer Frank Oz later told Variety the series “wasn’t true to the characters” and that the show, which explored the behind-the-scenes drama of Kermit, Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear’s personal lives, lacked a vital “purity” to each character. “I felt that purity was being moved around to areas that didn’t feel right,” he said.
“My brothers, my sisters, were in there [as the puppeteers]. They did the very best they could,” Oz added. “But essentially, they were working with scripts that other people wrote. They had to do it the way it was. If it was given more air and they trusted the performers, as we had air, it would have come alive more. Those abilities, to riff and be smart enough, weren’t appreciated.”
Muppets Now premieres exclusively on Disney+ in 2020. The service launches November 12.
