A live-action Ted prequel TV show was first said to be in development at Peacock in mid-2021. It now seems to be on pretty solid ground after announcing that original Ted creator Seth MacFarlane will be returning to voice the world’s most inappropriate teddy bear. Ted was originally released in cinemas a decade ago, providing MacFarlane with a big hit. Even though the sequel didn’t quite strike the same chord, there is still a lot of love out there for MacFarlane’s creation, so it is not surprising that Peacock are adding it to their list of movie-to-series projects.
Though it was unknown for some time whether MacFarlane would be returning for the series, Peacock has now confirmed that the Family Guy creator will voice Ted in the show, and he will also direct, co-write, co-showrun and co-executive produce the entire project making this very much the Seth MacFarlane show, which usually means good things for those who have followed his work for the last few decades.
As expected, there will be no Mark Wahlberg or Mila Kunis this time around, as the prequel series will be set in 1993 when the movie’s lead John is 16 years old, and Ted’s role model credentials are being called into question as his best buddy comes of age. Played by Max Burkholder, John will be seen getting into any number of scrapes with his irresponsible bear, along with John’s cousin Blaire (13 Reasons Why’s Giorgia Whigham) and we will also see John’s father Matty (Scott Grimes) in the mix too.
Ted Indulged Itself in Seth MacFarlane’s Love of 80s Pop Culture
When Ted arrived in cinemas in 2012, the movie scored a $600 million gross from its pretty small $60 million budget, and part of its success was down to Seth MacFarlane’s love of a good cameo and the 1980s. Featuring numerous references to events and people from the 1980s, when MacFarlane was himself a teenager, the movie even saw Flash Gordon star Sam J. Jones make an extended cameo appearance as both himself and in one memorable scene as Flash Gordon. With MacFarlane in charge of the TV series, there is no doubt that we are in for the same kind of raucous fun all over again.
There is currently no word on when we are likely to see the Ted series debut on Peacock, but it is unlikely that they will be looking to stall on the project as they look to bolster their content in the coming years. The streamer has already seen a number of older shows being revived on the platform, as well as IPs owned by NBC and Universal being revived as TV shows, such as the upcoming MacGruber, Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and a live-action Casper series. Adding Ted to the list of shows proves that Peacock is hoping to push themselves up among the big streamers with new content based on some well-loved properties, and it has to be said that having to compete with the likes of Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+ and HBO Max, they need to pull out all the big guns they have.