Why Ted Creator Seth MacFarlane Thinks The Peacock Series Won’t Get A Season 3

This article accommodates some gentle spoilers for “Ted” season 2.

How profitable is “Ted,” the Peacock prequel spin-off series to the pair of theatrical films of the same nameat promoting its titular character, a strolling, speaking teddy bear voiced by creator Seth MacFarlane? The reply is that the impact is so thorough and convincing that it would really feel somewhat unusual to think about simply how costly all of it is. We’ve gotten used to fully CGI creations becoming fully-fledged leading characters over the past couple of decades. This shift has been so utterly profitable that many of us take these characters at face worth, and fairly often do not see how a lot work goes into them.

The unlucky actuality within the success of characters like Ted is that they are the results of very costly efforts. This is what MacFarlane cited when speaking to The Wrap recently about the possibility of a third season of the seriessimply because the second season has dropped on Peacock. While neither the streaming service nor MacFarlane is saying something definitive but, the latter mentioned that “there’s no plan… at the moment to do season 3.” MacFarlane additional elaborated, saying that “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.'”

Given how integral Ted is to the sequence, this sounds comprehensible. The excellent news is that MacFarlane and the sequence showrunners have a plan for no matter ought to find yourself occurring. However, a sure selection made in season 2 may point out that maybe the individuals behind the present may be somewhat too reliant on visible results.

In the fifth episode of “Ted” season 2, Seth MacFarlane portrays former President Bill Clinton, who turns up for a cameo scene. As MacFarlane defined to The Wrap, this look was delivered to life by way of a mix of MacFarlane’s uncanny vocal impersonation together with AI expertise (it isn’t solely clear from MacFarlane’s feedback what kind of AI this was, however one may assume it is just like a machine studying/deepfake model of the person’s likeness, as seen in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Alien Romulus”). MacFarlane went on as to why he and the “Ted” showrunners felt that this technique was the easiest way to go:

“Had we gone the traditional CGI route, which we did try, it was just terrifying to look at. […] So we used the AI ​​method. The CGI was distracting from the jokes, you were focusing on the effect rather than the writing. We want people focused on the writing. So it was an interesting use and interesting glimpse into the future. It’s like, here’s AI used as a tool the same way that we use CGI or stop motion or any other tools to best bring our writing to life.”

MacFarlane’s rationale sounds affordable on the face of it, till one considers the character of this cameo. Sure, Clinton is a usually well-known public determine, however he is not somebody whose photorealism is so integral to a gag on a comedy sequence. Why could not MacFarlane simply play the function as himself with minimal make-up, as with John Travolta in “Primary Colors” or Phil Hartman on “Saturday Night Live?” Perhaps “Ted” and MacFarlane are so used to utilizing animation and VFX that extra cost-saving measures escape them.

Fortunately for “Ted” followers, the long run for the foul-mouthed teddy bear seems fairly shiny, it doesn’t matter what finally ends up occurring with the live-action prequel sequence. When it involves the sequence getting a 3rd season or not, Seth MacFarlane defined how, despite the fact that he and the showrunners gave the present a definitive ending, it may be attainable to vary or amend it:

“I wrote the last scene with Max [Burkholder, who plays John] walking into a gym, presumably coming out like Mark Wahlberg in the first ‘Ted’ film. SW [showrunners] 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.”

After all, everything of the “Ted” sequence takes place in between the opening sequence and modern-day setting of the primary movie, so it isn’t just like the franchise hasn’t discovered some wiggle room earlier than. Furthermore, MacFarlane, Corrigan, and Walsh are extending the Tedverse each narrative- and medium-wise, as a brand new animated sequence that happens post-“Ted 2” is coming to Peacock at an indeterminate level sooner or later. So, even when a 3rd season of “Ted” would not find yourself occurring, the franchise looks like it is from completed. As such, pre-bear your self for extra “Ted” sooner or later.