Netflix stood by Jeffrey Tambor in the wake of his firing from Amazon’s Transparent on sexual misconduct charges, but Paramount—perhaps after seeing the complete media shitshow currently swirling around Tambor and Arrested Development—is taking no such chances. The Wrap reports that the studio has booted Tambor from his role as Boomer, a narcoleptic blue bear, in its upcoming animated movie Wonder Park, described enigmatically on IMDb as “a story of a girl, some animals, and a magic amusement park.”
In a statement, a Paramount spokesperson says, “Jeffrey Tambor is not part of the final voice cast for Wonder Park. During production, we came to the decision that it was in the best interests of the film to go in a different direction,” which, sure. Makes sense. Making the decision even easier is the fact that this is an animated film, so the studio doesn’t even have to do expensive reshoots a lá All The Money In The World replacing Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer. Just hire another actor, book a voiceover booth for the afternoon, and bam! You’ve got a new, scandal-free narcoleptic blue bear. The spokesperson continues, with this wonderfully absurd series of words:
“The character of Boomer the Bear is now voiced by the very talented Ken Hudson Campbell.”