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The Muppets sequel, a once promising follow up to Jason Segel’s Muppet revival, has become severely less interesting as more information is revealed. Christoph Waltz dropped out of a leading role and was replaced by Modern Family’s Ty Burrell. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Ricky Gervais, star of those two funny things, is now in talks for the lead role.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Gervais was in talks for the role, which has been compared to Segel’s in the previous film. The Muppets 2 is a European adventure, similar to The Great Muppet Caper, which could explain Gervais’ involvement. I say that not only because Gervais is British, but because he otherwise wouldn’t belong in a comedy.

For a time I found Gervais very funny. The original BBC Office is fantastic, and Gervais’ later series Extras has some great moments. Sadly, once Gervais found fame in the United States, he put his career on cruise control, settling for talking down the Golden Globes yet returning each year to tell hacky jokes about Angelina Jolie and Mel Gibson. Now Gervais has turned into a brash, screeching shell of a former comedian, and appears to be his biggest fan.

I hope this doesn’t happen, or at least that he actually tones his shtick down if he gets the role. He likely will, since he is in a family film and can’t heckle Kermit’s faith or talk about Robert Downey Jr’s former alcoholism. It’s obvious that Ricky Gervais can be funny, the question is whether or not he’ll try to be this time.

Regardless of the recent casting disappointments, The Muppets 2 still has plenty of promise. Both James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller are returning to write the film, with Bobin directing. Bret McKenzie, who wrote absolutely fantastic songs for The Muppets is returning as well. Those are good hands to be in, and hopefully their script won’t just be a jumping off point for Gervais. At its best this could be another great Muppet movie, at its worst – well, it can’t be worse than Muppets From Space.

-Jeremy