After his second directorial feature, A Million Ways To Die In The West, was met with disappointing reviews, Seth MacFarlane is poised to return to more financially sound pastures with his upcoming comedy sequel, Ted 2.
With Amanda Seyfried and Morgan Freeman joining the cast, production is beginning to ramp up ahead of the film’s 2015 release date. That aforementioned duo will join Mark Walhberg for the R-rated romp, who recently took to Twitter to upload an image of his character (John Bennett) sitting atop a Flash Gordon-styled motorcycle.
Ready to ride? Mark on the set of Ted 2 with a new #IndianScout pic.twitter.com/EjuKUxnIYh
— Mark Wahlberg (@mark_wahlberg) September 10, 2014
Does this mean that Flash Gordon himself — aka Sam Jones — will have another cameo role for Ted 2? At this stage, we can only hope. Nevertheless, we understand that the sequel will pick up shortly after the events of the first film, where the seemingly idyllic marriage between Bennett and Mila Kunis’ Lori has taken a turn for the worse — hence Seyfried’s role as the new female lead.
In terms of the film’s other new recruit, Variety reports that Freeman is to “play an iconic civil rights lawyer who comes into the picture when Ted needs to resolve some legal issues.” We can only imagine what kind of legal issues the foul-mouthed teddy bear has fallen into.
Of course, that cuddly thunder buddy will once again be voiced by director Seth MacFarlane, who is set to return at the helm. Following the success of the original — which took close to $550 million at the worldwide box office — it was almost inevitable that we would see a Ted 2. We’ll just have to wait until the sequel opens on June 26th, 2015 to gauge whether MacFarlane and co. made the right decision.