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Sequels are serious business, as a meteoric hit like Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 comedy Ted aren’t always built to continue onward. The 2024 TV schedule is about to give way to a limited prequel series that fills in some of the backstory in that universe, which gives us a good entry point to talk about how this unlikely franchise became its current self. So why not take this opportunity talk about how Ted 2 totally changed on a dime during its development.
Seth MacFarlane originally had a totally different sequel in mind, but thanks to some outside circumstances, the 2015 movie changed into something off that beaten path. Though as a result, this may or may not have been the reason Mila Kunis didn’t return to her role of Lori for a full movie, as two different stories were told in the press.
So before you take advantage of your Peacock subscription to watch that Ted prequel series, here’s the story behind what Ted 2 could have been and what led to some drastic changes.
Ted 2’s Original Story Pitch
Thanks to a directorial debut that netted $549.4 million at the box office, Seth MacFarlane’s Ted became a box office smash after debuting on June 29, 2012. As you’d expect, it didn’t take long for the wheels of progress to turn, as Universal brass made Ted 2 a priority, per an announcement that September.
According to an interview that MacFarlane did with promoting the film’s eventual release, the original idea for this sequel could have cribbed from another legendary Universal property. Here’s part of what Seth revealed to CinemaBlend in a 2015 roundtable when it came to the original Ted 2 draft:
The first draft was actually going to be John and Ted trucking a pot shipment across the country.
Oh, if this wasn’t a set up for a feature-length riff on Smokey and the Bandit, I don’t know what is. You can practically see Mark Wahlberg and his CGI teddy bear co-star tooling around in a ‘77 Pontiac Firebird, trying to do what they say can’t be done. So in that respect, we might have seen Mila Kunis’ Lori pay a role akin to Sally Field’s Carrie, should this have been the plan.
It looks like we’ll never know, because that Ted 2 pitch was not long for this world. As development on the 2015 sequel would continue in the shadow of Ted’s surprising 2012 success, another movie would come along just a year later that would derail these plans with a very similar story. And as a result, a domino effect would take hold, changing everything.
Why Seth MacFarlane Had To Rewrite Ted 2
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Seth MacFarlane didn’t want to look like he was ripping off the competition with his free-roaming Ted 2 adventure. Further along in the previously cited interview with CinemaBlend, the Family Guy creator admitted that one certain 2013 comedy was the reason for diverting the original course of action. Here’s the rest of how that story played out:
We’re The Millers came out while we were writing it, and it was the same story. So we had to scrap it.
A box office smash in its own right, director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s own R-rated road comedy saw Jason Sudekis and Jennifer Aniston embarking on a fake family road trip to smuggle some pot in from Mexico. So yeah, We’re The Millers definitely sounded like it was along the same lines of the first iteration of Ted 2.
The movie’s $270 million grosses certainly would have made things more difficult for this sequel to really take off. It could have been a perfect storm of unfair comparisons, which would have been piled onto the usual sequel expectations.
The bad news was that the work that was already in play had to be junked, which sucks even more when you consider the fact that surprise comedy sequels are as time sensitive as party invites. So if Ted 2 was to stand a chance, it needed a new angle going forward. Eventually, Seth MacFarlane would find that angle, thanks to some unlikely inspiration.
As Collider was on hand for the same roundtable that yielded this information, that outlet’s reporting discussed how MacFarlane retooled Ted 2:
When I was shooting A Million Ways to Die in the West, I was reading the John Jakes North and South series, in my spare time, and there was a section about Dred Scott, which jogged memories about my high school history class. I thought, “That might be something that could provide a germ of an idea for an interesting sequel,” given the fact that the question of Ted’s rights and his status would come up, if this were a real scenario.
It’s time for another good news/bad news scenario, folks. Or at least, that’s what it looks like depending on who’s version of events you subscribe to. As it turns out, according to MacFarlane’s side of the story, Ted 2’s evolution came at the cost of Mila Kunis’ character.
How Ted 2’s Rewrite Led To Mila Kunis’ Absence, According To Seth MacFarlane
To be fair, at the end of Ted, the Patrick Stewart narration did seem to tie everything up rather nicely. Again, no one expected a sequel from this then-unknown quantity. So when Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried was cast in Ted 2, the big question became what in the world happened to Mila Kunis’s Lori?
Well, according to Seth MacFarlane’s continued remarks during the Ted 2 roundtable, the plan changed due to that huge redraft inspired by We’re the Millers. In the story, Lori was supposedly trying to change Johnny into someone he wasn’t, and their love affair wasn’t meant to last. But for the purposes of our reality, here’s why Lori was no longer in the picture:
Initially, she was in the sequel. … The story that we wrote required this young lawyer character. I had just worked with Amanda [Seyfried] on the Western, and just had a great experience with her.
In Ted 2’s opening, we find out that Johnny and Lori divorced just six months before Ted’s marriage to Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth). Those nuptials turned into a quest to determine whether this sentient teddy bear had the rights of an actual person, which led to the boys hiring lawyer Samantha Leslie Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) to try the case.
Apparently Ms. Seyfried was surprised by Ted 2’s changes as well. Promoting the movie leading up to its 2015 release, she seemed to be under the impression that the road trip idea was still in the cards when she signed up. That’s not all that changed apparently, as in her own account of events, Mila Kunis gave a different reason for not being in Ted 2.
The Reason Mila Kunis Gave For Not Appearing In Ted 2
While Seth MacFarlane’s case for a Mila Kunis-free Ted 2 involved story mechanics, that’s not what the Jupiter Ascending star gave as her reason for not being present. According to an AMA that Kunis did for Reddit (via Looper), the reason that Lori did not return for another round of stuffed bear-induced mayhem was the following concern:
A little thing called ‘a pregnancy’ got in the way of me and production. But I wish them all the best, and I’m sure the movie will be hysterical.
Honestly, that’s another valid reason for Ted 2 to introduce a new lead into the mix. And with both of those cases reported, it could be a situation where one scenario led into another. As it was reported by Deadline, Mila Kunis wasn’t a major character in the new draft of Ted’s big sequel. Should that have been true, then her pregnancy may have led to her decision to not return to the franchise at all, as it wouldn’t have been worth the fuss.
There would need to be a bit more clarification from all parties, but this seems to be the most likely case based on what we’ve seen here. Much like the original pitch for Ted 2, we’ll probably never hear anything further on the matter, though that didn’t spell certain doom for Universal’s continuing comedy concept.
Ted 2 would eventually go on to be a surprise 2015 hit, even though it wouldn’t hit the heights that its predecessor achieved. That’s still not a terrible fate for a film that even Seth MacFarlane wasn’t sure would succeed. And now, with a limited prequel series heading to Peacock in the near future, the story is far from over for Johnny Bennett and Ted.
Perhaps there’s a chance that, should this new venture last long enough, we’ll see a natural reintroduction to Lori, and maybe even a reunion for a hypothetical Ted 3. For now, the future is definitely in the past, as Ted’s limited series debut is slated to take place on January 11. If you want to keep the fun going, the 2012 picture that started it all is also available on that same streaming platform.