If you thought you saw the last of Seth MacFarlane’s foul-mouthed teddy bear, think again. “Ted: The Animated Series” will premiere on Peacock with eight episodes on Dec. 17, with more set to stream in 2027.
The comedy, which is created and executive produced by MacFarlane and co-showrunners Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh, serves as a sequel to the beloved film franchise.
“Picking up 12 years after the conclusion of the last movie, John and his thunder-buddy Ted are neighbors, both with families of their own and dead-end jobs,” the logline states. “Follow these two lovable stoners as they enable each other’s bad ideas about marriage, parenting and the challenges of adult life.”
A new teaser offers a first look at the reunion between the titular teddy bear voiced by MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg’s John. After the former says the pair can do anything in the animation medium with no consequences, the latter decides to do a backflip, but ends up landing flat on his face and left in pain, adding “it hurts like real life.”
As Ted introduces the new series, John questions why the animators would do this to him before an anvil lands on him. Ted replies, “An anvil. Ah, they’re having fun. This is gonna be fun,” as he drags John off screen.
In addition to MacFarlane and Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried, who portrays John’s wife Sam, and Jessica Barth, who portrays Ted’s wife Tami-Lynn, return. Also joining the voice cast as series regulars are Kyle Mooney and Liz Richman as Apollo and Ruth, respectively.
In addition to MacFarlane, Corrigan and Walsh, other EPs include Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Jason Clark, Aimee Carlson and Claudia Katz. UGT, a division of Universal Studio Group, Fuzzy Door, and MRC serve as the studios on the series, while Rough Draft Studios Inc. provides animation.
Corrigan and Walsh previously collaborated with MacFarlane on Peacock’s live-action “Ted” prequel, which ended after two seasons. In March, MacFarlane told TheWrap that there was “no plan” to do a Season 3, citing the cost of production. Some estimates have pegged the prequel series’ budget between $8 million and $10 million per episode.
“What I kept hearing [from Peacock and Universal] was, ‘Listen, the show is really expensive to produce and there’s no way to do it at a lower cost. So I said, ‘All right, I hear you loud and clear.’ So I wrote the last scene with Max [Burkholder] walking into a gym, presumably coming out as Mark Wahlberg in the first Ted film,” MacFarlane said at the time. “So Brad Walsh and Paul Corrigan and I kind of painted ourselves into a corner. Is there a way to do it? There’s always a way to do anything. But at the moment, it might take some narrative acrobatics. There’s no plan that I’ve heard of at the moment to do Season 3.”
In that same interview, MacFarlane stayed mum about the plot of the animated series, but praised the vocal talents of Wahlberg, Seyfried and Barth.
“A lot of times, on-camera stars do not translate well to voiceover because they don’t have their fabulous faces to show off. But this group has really just thrilled all of us,” MacFarlane said. “[Mark Wahlberg] is great and he’s so funny. With just two words out of his mouth you know that it’s Mark and he knew how to elevate it just a little bit for the animation medium. He’s a very shrewd guy who just always winds up being the savant that’s two steps ahead of where you think he’s going to be.”
He also said Corrigan and Walsh have done a “knockout job” executive producing the new installment.
“They’ve, of course, come off ‘Modern Family’ with their pile of Emmys. So they were a good choice to do this,” he added. “They’ve really delivered something that feels new and fresh and yet also feels like it’s within the Ted universe.”
Check out the teaser for “Ted: The Animated Series” in the video above.
The post Mark Wahlberg and Ted Reunite in First Look at Peacock Animated Series appeared first on TheWrap.
