Muppets Now: Walter On His Favorite Muppet Memorabilia, and What It’s Like to Act With His Heroes

Tomorrow sees the debut of Muppets Now, the first new production starring The Muppets since The Muppets., the mockumentary-style sitcom in the vein of The Office and Modern Family, was cancelled on ABC in 2016. When that show aired, many fans noticed the absence of Walter, a new Muppet introduced in The Muppets (this time a movie, not a TV show, and without the stylized period), which hit theaters in 2011. Walter, an enhusiastic young Muppet who just wanted to be a part of the troupe, starred in that film and its 2014 sequel, Muppets Most Wanted, but wasn’t on board in 2016.

He’s back now, though, and hosting his own segment on Muppets Now, a new series debuting on Disney+ and airing Fridays. In his segment, Walter spotlights other Muppets, true to his nature as The Muppets’ biggest fan, although we won’t go any more spoilery than that.

Walter joined ComicBook.com to talk about the series, including what it’s like to work with your heroes after so many years of dreaming. You can read it below or check out the video above. If you do the latter, just know that due to a technical snafu, our interview had nearly started early when the wrong Zoom room opened up, but then we got disconnected again and reconnected at the correct time. That isn’t important information for fans of Muppets Now, but it explain why we start the conversation joking about having seen each other 20 minutes ago.

We haven’t seen you in a little while. What’s your role in Muppets Now?

I make a few cameos. All the guys are kind of doing their own segments. I’ve got my own segment, too; it’s called “Muppet Masters.” It’s kind of a fan’s look from the inside. Being a fans’ fan, I like bringing aspects of my new friends here, that people might not know certain things they’re into. I’m still tweaking it a little bit, so “Muppet Masters” will come in a little while. Until then, you’ve got “Pepe’s Game Show.” You’ve got “Muppet Labs Field Tests” with Bunsen and Beaker. You’ve probably heard about that; we’re going to have all kinds of science, breaking a few thousand safety rules along the way, and the Swedish Chef has a cooking segment, it’s called — I’m going to destroy the pronunciation here, I don’t speak Swedish, but it’s called “Okay Dokey Cooking.”

You have this beautiful collection of memorabilia behind you. Do you have a favorite piece you can point out?

You know what? I acutally do!…

This is the seat from our 2011 film The Muppets, where Jason Segel who plays my brother Gary, we’re riding a bicycle built for two, and this is the seat that I sat on. They let me keep the seat and that’s probably one of my favorites.

Do you ever get used to working with this troupe that you’ve loved for so long?

No. No, no. I’m still not used to it; I can’t even believe I get to be here today talking to you from ComicBook and working with the guys here that…whoa. I pinch myself every day.

Who are you looking the most forward to working with that you havne’t had a lot of time with?

I haven’t worked with Crazy Harry; I’d like to work a little more with him. I haven’t worked a lot with Link Hogthrob…and I’d like to work with Prairie Dawn.