Muppets don't actually Live Another Day as Disney+ series canceled

The latest casualty in the push and pull of franchises that Disney has deigned to include in its domination is the Disney+ Muppet series Muppets Live Another Day. And, seeing how legendary Muppets performer Frank Oz felt about how Disney and ABC have handled his beloved characters in the past, maybe this is for the best. "In general, I start to vomit when things get too smarmy,” Oz said earlier this year. “When it gets overly sentimental and sweet, I just start to vomit. It's all because Disney doesn't understand purity." Well now Disney has decided to scrap the whole thing altogether.

According to Deadline, the comedy show from writer and executive producer Josh Gad and Once Upon a Time creators/Lost alumni Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis, had a pilot order but has been canned over disputes between the writing team and the leaders of the Muppet Studio. Sounds like Gad, Horowitz, and Kitsis were potentially looking to take the Muppets in a direction not everyone could agree on.

If it were a bit "smarmy," it would echo the tone of the short-lived ABC series The Muppets, which went for a behind-the-scenes and semi-edgy 30 Rock vibe. Muppets Live Another Day would begin directly after The Muppets Take Manhattan and circle around Kermit’s quest to get the gang back together.

While Disney+’s extensive Marvel and Star Wars content has been blowing up the internet, the rest of the titan’s catalog has been hit and miss. They can’t all be The Mandalorian or Loki. Instead, properties like the Muppets — which incidentally still has a variety show (Muppets Now) in the works at the streaming service that would more closely resemble The Muppet Show than a straight comedy — have been trying to find a foothold for their future.

While much of the classic Disney library will be available, new versions of these characters, like those found in the now-canceled series Book of Enchantment, and content more closely associated with their younger-skewing Disney Channel (like the ghost-hotel adventure Sulphur Springs) have been some of the few to meet the chopping block.

However, the juggernauts of Star Wars and Marvel (Hawkeye! Obi-Wan!) will be present in full force when Disney+ launches on Nov. 12.