Seth MacFarlane’s Big ‘Ted’ Challenge: How Does This Character Exist ‘Without Mark Wahlberg’?
thewrap.comSeth MacFarlane never considered adapting the “Ted” films for television until Peacock suggested it – partly because he thought it would be too expensive, and partly because it was hard to imagine creating a series about the foul-mouthed stuffed bear without Mark Wahlberg playing his trusty companion.“For me, the challenge was really how does this character exist in a world without Mark Wahlberg?” MacFarlane said at Sunday’s PGA Produced By conference. “That was really a two-hander.
The movie was a real feat of visual effects work for the artists who did it. But also, if you look at the raw footage before the bear was placed into it, a lot of it was Mark.”The 2012 film and its sequel starred Wahlberg as John Bennett, a 30-something slacker whose best friend is Ted (MacFarlane), a stuffed-animal bear that he wished into life as a young boy.
The duo mostly sits around and smokes weed until Ted decides it’s time to help his pal grow up. After the 2012 film and its 2015 sequel, “Ted 2,” scored big at the box office, Peacock approached writer-director MacFarlane about taking “Ted” to TV.The only concept that appealed to MacFarlane was creating a prequel that dived into John’s teenage years – meaning that Wahlberg’s role would have to be recast.
Max Burkholder (“Parenthood”) will play John, while MacFarlane will reprise the titular role (in voiceover only, of course).
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