The Muppets Mayhem may not come out until next year, but its promotional campaign has already begun. In fact, all of the show, its creators and most of its stars were the subject of an entire panel at New York Comic Con this weekend. At the panel, there were ton of new details revealed about the show. However, by the end there were still a ton of questions still left unanswered.
Fortunately, our Editor-in-Chief Dempsey Pillot was given the privilege to attend an exclusive roundtable afterwards with all of panel’s talent. There, he and several other journalists were able to ask some more pointed questions about series.
One of the first questions asked was about the decision to make a Muppets show that revolved around characters the franchise has never really cared for. But co-creator and writer Jeff Yorkes claimed that the lack of love towards the characters is exactly why they seemed like perfect subjects. He said, “I think that part of it [was them] being marginalized, if you will, there. I mean, I guess as a kid, I was attracted to the color and the music…yet they are one thing and you can see them separately. The music is amazing. If you love music, you love these guys. Their personalities are terrific. And then in terms of a show, we really can do anything with these guys, because people just know them enough.”
READ: Full Completed Version of ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ to Release on Disney+
One of the show’s other co-creators and writers Adam F. Goldberg (yes, also the same man behind ABC’s The Goldbergs) then chimed in that the cancellation of the last Muppets show at ABC was a good indication that the general audience was tired of the same old thing. He said, “I feel like there was the Muppet ABC show, which really had the whole cast of characters. After that, I think we felt like it was a way for us to tell more of a movie with these side characters that are just as iconic as Kermit, Fozzie, Ms. Piggy. “
In addition to Dr. Teeth, Animal, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, and Lips, Goldberg also teased that he “also created new characters” for the show too. Funny enough, Yorkes called the show his and Goldberg’s The Mandalorian, explaining that it allowed them “to play in this universe, in this sandbox, without being beholden to the ‘Jedi’ and Luke Skywalker and all the [other] characters.”
But that does’t necessarily mean we won’t see some of franchise’s classic Muppets either. During the panel, both Yorkes and Goldberg explained that there would be a healthy amount of cameos over the course of the series – just like every other Muppet project.
When asked if fans would see any other Muppets, however, Goldberg strategically said, “Well, the fact that we’re not allowed to say [anything] means something. But you know, that was one worry of ours. When you see [the word] Muppets you’re expecting Kermit. Yes. But this is strictly about the band.”
He went on to compare the series to Marvel’s (then) out-of-the-box decision to make a whole series about Loki. He said, “I would argue that before the Marvel movies, nobody knew who Loki was. And now Loki is a huge piece of IP that has his own show. And he’s in many movies. The Muppet characters are bigger than the Marvel characters in terms of awareness. Spider Man’s iconic, but I would [also] say Fonzie is iconic, just as iconic.”
Yorkes later joked that they were building their own MCU, a “Muppets Cinematic Universe.” But as the discussion continued, it became more apparent that the two weren’t joking at all. “Our plan is to [do the same thing as] these Marvel shows about the different kinds of groups of characters,” Goldberg added.
When asked what they had in mind, Goldberg immediately said he’d hoped to create a Fozzie Bear stand-up comedy special or a Swedish Chef cooking show. He insinuated that putting in them in those respective worlds that their characters were built around makes the most sense. Yorkes, on the other hand, wants to see a show with Muppet pigs in space. He pitched the idea as “a spoof of sci-fi shows” that be an interesting contrast to all the Star Wars content on Disney+.
READ: Barry Keoghan Is Begging To Be In Taika Waititi’s ‘Star Wars’ Film
All of this is wholly dependent on how successful season one is though. But judging by the very brief footage shown to all the journalists at NYCC, we think it’s going to be a hit.
On top of all their plans, Goldberg and Yorkes openly admitted that they already have an outline of what a second season of Muppets Mayhem might look like too: a road trip.
“We really see multiple seasons because of their album,” Goldberg said. As Yorkes explained, the obvious question is, “What do you do as a band with an hour? Tour.”
Goldberg joked that regardless of how successful the show is, a whole season where the band tours could be appealing to Disney because of how cheap it would be to film. “Budget wise, we’ll have no sets. We’re just out on the road…But when it’s a hit, hopefully they let us do that.”
The Muppets Mayhem premieres on Disney+ sometime next year.
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