Seth MacFarlane Says Future ‘Ted’ Projects Will Depend on ‘Audience Appetite’
With Season 1 of Peacock’s “Ted” series out in the world, Seth MacFarlane is leaving the future of the foul-mouthed teddy bear’s franchise in fans’ hands.
While showrunners Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh are open to returning for more seasons to follow the character’s crazy adventures with a younger John Bennett, the “Family Guy” creator told TheWrap that any future “Ted” projects — whether that be more seasons of the Peacock series or even a third film — will depend on “audience appetite.”
“I think we felt after ‘Ted 2’ that maybe the appetite for Ted in that forum was not quite as ravenous as it was after the first movie. So I don’t know, there would have to be a reason to do it,” MacFarlane told TheWrap. “There has to be an audience for something like this. You don’t want to just keep rehashing the same character if no one’s watching. I guess there’s a lot of that today anyway, but it’s not really our first order of business, there really has to be an appetite.”
Corrigan and Walsh told TheWrap they’ve already started to have conversations about the potential for future seasons.
“We’re certainly open to it. I think there’s a ton more stories to explore. I mean, we have this teenage, going into early 20s young man that is going through all these experiences and also has his family around him,” Walsh told TheWrap. “We’ve told, what, seven stories so far? There’s plenty of room to explore and we’d love to explore it.”
“This season is the junior year of high school. You can easily see senior year of high school or the beginnings of college, or what that looks like if it is college or not,” Corrigan added. “I think it’d be great to explore that.”
But Walsh also acknowledged that getting the current season completed was a “lengthy process,” and ultimately depends on Seth MacFarlane.
“It’s a labor of love for Seth, but it’s also quite taxing,” Walsh said. “He’s very hands on with it. So that is one challenge.”
The seven-episode live-action prequel follows Ted and a 16-year-old John (Max Burkholder) in Framingham, Mass. in 1993, where the pair are living with John’s parents Matty and Susan (Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach) and cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham). The show follows as the Thunder Buddies engage in a number of experiences for the first time while navigating high school.
In addition to MacFarlane, Corrigan and Walsh, “Ted” is executive produced by Fuzzy Door Productions’ Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Jason Clark and Aimee Carlson. Fuzzy Door, MRC and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, serve as producers.
All episodes of “Ted” are now streaming on Peacock.
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