Muppets revival series scrapped at Disney Plus

Disney Plus has its second casualty before it even launches. It has been announced that the streaming service will no be moving forward with Muppets Live Another Day from Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis.

Josh Gad was set to be one of the writers on the series and took to his Instagram account to explain what happened saying, “After a little over a year and a half of working on a project called Muppets Live Another Day, [Adam Horowitz] and [Eddy Kitsis] and I have decided, with a heavy heart, to walk away. Some times creative differences are just that.”

The show was to pick up a year after the events of Muppets Take Manhatten. Gad went on to describe the premise for the series, saying, “It was going to be Muppets by way of Stranger Things and feel like a movie spread over 6-8 episodes. Part of the joy for us, by placing the Muppets in the middle of the 1980’s, was to subvert and comment on our current love for all things nostalgia while at the same time allowing the characters to tell a story that would ultimately lead to and end in present day, revealing some secrets along the way.”

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Misinformation is my least favorite kind of information so I thought I’d take a minute to clarify some news that broke today. After a little over a year and a half of working on a project called “Muppets Live Another Day,” @adamhorowitzla #eddykitsis and I have decided, with a heavy heart, to walk away. Some times creative differences are just that. The project, with original songs by Bobby Lopez and Kristen Lopez was to be directed by the great Jason Moore, (director of “Avenue Q” and “Pitch Perfect”). It was meant to be a limited event series that picked up a year after “Muppets Take Manhattan” and was essentially about what happens after you’ve reached the end of the rainbow. It was going to be Muppets by way of Stranger Things and feel like a movie spread over 6-8 episodes. Part of the joy for us, by placing the Muppets in the middle of the 1980’s, was to subvert and comment on our current love for all things nostalgia while at the same time allowing the characters to tell a story that would ultimately lead to and end in present day, revealing some secrets along the way. It has been one of the great joys of all of our lives to write words for these iconic characters. We wish this franchise all the best and thank our partners at Disney+ and ABC Studios for the opportunity to develop something so fun and outside the box. They have been nothing but supportive and terrific and we can’t wait to play again in other sandboxes. While it is sad, I have no doubt this franchise, under its new leadership will find new and wonderful stories to tell. My only hope is that one day you can all hear the BRILLIANT music by Bobby and @kristenlopez5681 wrote for Kermit and company. The music is next level good. In the meantime, Adam, Eddy and I are already cooking up new fun ideas that we cannot wait to share. Until then, long live “The Muppets.” They have given us joy for over 40 years and I have no doubt they will continue to bring us joy for the next 40 years.

A post shared by Josh Gad (@joshgad) on Sep 9, 2019 at 10:42pm PDT

The cancelation of Muppets Live Another Day has no impact on the Muppets shorts that were announced. Muppets Now will be a series of unscripted, short-form episodes that will be shown on Disney Plus.

There are sure to be more cancelations in the history of Disney Plus, but it would have been interesting to at least see what this series was going to be. This actually marks the second project killed off early with the first one having been Book of Enchantment. It’s nice to know Disney isn’t just throwing everything on the service just so it has larger content numbers.

Disney Plus will launch on Nov. 12.

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