Back in the late 2000s, Jason Segel made a name for himself in R-rated comedies like “Knocked Up,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “I Love You, Man,” and “Bad Teacher.” He was charming, warm, hilarious, and genuine. As his career shifted into the 2010s, Segel started getting a little more family friendly with roles in “Despicable Me” and “Gulliver’s Travels,” but easily his crowning achievement for audiences of every age was “The Muppets.”
In 2011, after a 12-year hiatus from the big screen, Jim Henson’s beloved puppet franchise returned to theaters in a big way, and Jason Segel joined them. Fulfilling a lifelong dream that began during his childhood, “The Muppets” was a roaring success, raking in over $165 million worldwide on a budget of just $45 million. The film directed by James Bobin captured the spirit of the Muppets while also infusing it with contemporary comedic sensibilities, and Segel proved to be not only an incredible co-star but a fantastic collaborator as the film’s co-writer, along with “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” director Nicholas Stoller.
As Segel has been making the publicity rounds for the hilariously gory dark comedy “Over Your Dead Body” with Samara Weaving, I couldn’t help but ask if “Knocked Up” co-star Seth Rogen’s recent revival of “The Muppet Show” might make it easier for him to return to the Muppets universe, should the show receive some kind of larger series order. The way Segel lit up talking about the Muppets was wonderful to witness, and that included a bit of information that may not have been revealed before.
It turns out Jason Segel had the opportunity to puppet several of the Muppets himself during the production of the 2011 movie.
Jason Segel got to puppeteer Animal and Dr. Teeth
When asked about the potential to reunited with the Muppets, Segel reinforced his lifelong love for the classic characters:
“Listen, my goal is that the Muppets thrive forever, and any capacity I can help with that has been my goal. I mean, making that Muppet movie was the highlight of my career, especially at the time. It was just like, they’ve been posters on my walls and figurines on my shelves and movies I watched for inspiration since I was a little kid. My mom taped every episode of ‘The Muppet Show’ for me, because I was a little too young to watch them, and then showed them to me on VHS when I got older. So I have really fond memories of the Muppets.”
Segel may not have many Muppets that he didn’t get the chance to work with in the 2011 movie, and he got do much more than act alongside them too. During our discussion, Segel explained:
“I got to hang out with most of them, and I don’t know what I’m allowed to say, but I got to puppeteer Animal. And I got to puppeteer Dr. Teeth. And I had Kermit on my arm for a minute. I didn’t get to puppeteer him, but they let me wear him for a minute.”
The scene in question is easy to spot, as Segel explained, “In some of those scenes where we’re in the car picking up the other Muppets, the car was too tight to fit puppeteers. So I’m sitting there with fake arms, like fake human arms, and my real arms are operating the puppets next to me.”
Let’s hope The Muppet Show comes back in a big way
“The Muppet Show” special that debuted on Disney+ in February 2026 proved to be a streaming success. Sabrina Carpenter appeared as the primary special guest star, as well as executive producing the special along with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. As The Hollywood Reporter revealed, the special “doubled its initial on-air audience over eight days of streaming and other delayed viewing.” Initially, it found 3.07 million viewers when it debuted, but just over a week later, the audience grew to 7.58 million.
Will that be enough to get “The Muppet Show” back as a full series? Disney has proven that they haven’t really known what to do with the Muppets on television, even after the success of both “The Muppets” in 2011 and “Muppets Most Wanted” in 2014. Several attempts have proven to lack the same cleverness and charm that made their big screen return to successful. But Rogen & Goldberg’s revival fell right in line with the classic version of “The Muppet Show.” Just like “The Muppets” before it, they knew exactly how to infuse the series with just the right amount of modern humor to keep it fresh for new, younger audiences who may not have the same reverence that Segel had for the characters when he was a kid.
While we’re waiting to see what happens with “The Muppet Show” at Disney+, you can enjoy all the Muppet movies on the streaming service. For those looking forward to Segel getting back to adult humor, “Over Your Dead Body” arrives in theaters on April 24, 2026