Morgan Freeman—an actor so respected that he played God a few times—has officially entered the “Willing To Appear In A Movie About A Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bear” phase of his career. He’s too good to appear in just any teddy bear movie, though, so he’s going straight for this biggest teddy bear movie in all of Hollywood: Ted 2. This comes from Variety, which says Freeman will be playing “an iconic civil rights lawyer” who gets hired to help Ted—the surly teddy bear voiced by writer and director Seth MacFarlane—get out of some “legal issues.”
Variety also says Freeman’s part is a “juicy role,” which seems to indicate that he’ll finally have some real deep stuff to work with, so maybe this will help him land another Academy Award. In fact, we’re going to start generating Oscar buzz for Freeman’s stupid Ted 2 cameo right away: It’s majestic! It’s explosive! It reminds us why we love going to the movies!
Anyway, the idea that Ted 2 will involve Mark Wahlberg and his talking bear getting into legal troubles is especially interesting in light of the actual legal troubles facing the original Ted. We’re not saying Ted 2 is going for a Law & Order-style “ripped from the headlines” approach to its plot, but it would be a little clever if the sequel somehow dealt with the allegations that Ted’s basic premise was stolen. Or maybe that lawsuit against Ted was actually a nefarious viral marketing scheme, and we’re totally falling for it by bringing it up at all. Either Seth MacFarlane’s idea for a movie about a talking teddy bear wasn’t the most original idea in the world, or he’s a brilliant marketer who has been secretly planting Ted 2’s seeds for years. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Both prospects are equally chilling.