The Muppets Promise a “Big Surprise” in 2019, But What Could It Be?

December 31, 2018

The Muppets 2019 Project

Right now, Disney is sitting on the rights to some of the most famous puppets in history: Jim Henson’s The Muppets. However, they haven’t been able to figure out what to do with them for years now (even Frank Oz agrees with that), and it feels like they’re just collecting dust. But that might be changing in 2019 according to a tease from Kermit the Frog himself.

Could there be a Muppets 2019 project in the works?

Kermit the Frog appeared on KCAL’s morning news in Los Angeles back on December 21 and offered up a little tease:

You can watch the video by clicking the image above (the embed isn’t working properly), but here’s the relevant part of the interview. KCAL’s host Sandra Mitchell asked Kermit the Frog what was next for the amphibian entertainer and the rest of the Muppets gang, and Kermit only offered up this:

“Well, we’ve got a big surprise planned for the new year. I’d tell you what it was, but I don’t know what it is either.”

Obviously that’s not a lot to go on, but there are plenty of possibilities when it comes to the Muppets.

First of all, let’s take a look at what Kermit was doing on KCAL to begin with. The frog was there to promote an appearance in the stage show The Wonderful Winter of Oz, a stage show in which Kermit himself plays the Wizard of Oz. So perhaps there’s a possibility that we’ll see this production travel around the United States, or maybe become a new Muppet movie.

Speaking of stage shows, The Muppets got together for a series of live shows at the Hollywood Bowl back in 2017:

The Muppets Take the Bowl featured a huge cast of The Muppets, some special surprise guests, and host Bobby Moynihan bringing the signature comedy and songs of The Muppet Show to the stage. Perhaps there’s a chance this show could end up touring the globe?

Then again, we might not be looking at a big stage production at all. Let’s not forget that we heard rumblings earlier this year that a new Muppets series might be in development for the upcoming Disney+ streaming service. At the very least, it would be nice to have every episode of The Muppet Show available for streaming there, but a new show could be promising as well.

Finally, we could be looking at the possibility of a new Muppet movie, whether it’s for theaters or the aforementioned Disney subscription service. We haven’t heard anything about a new Muppet movie, especially after the dud that was Muppets Most Wanted in 2014, but it’s never out of the realm of possibility. The fact that Kermit doesn’t know what the project is going to be would seem to indicate that it’s all still up in the air, so we’ll just have to be patient.

While we wait to hear what this Muppets 2019 project could be, here they are on Carpool Karaoke: