After “Ted’s” phenomenal success at the worldwide box office and in-home entertainment in 2012, it was natural that conversations among the filmmakers and Universal Pictures would turn to a sequel.
For writer-director Seth MacFarlane, however, it was a not given that another chapter would automatically move forward. He explains: “I actually hadn’t planned on making a “Ted 2,” but any time something does well, that always comes up. There’s no reason to do it if you’re going to repeat the same movie. It’s not satisfying for the audience, and it’s really boring for us.”
Still, MacFarlane admits that he has a great deal of fondness for the characters and the genre lends itself to limitless ideas: “It’s a little easier with a comedy, because comedy is generally character-based, as opposed to premise-based, and in a way you treat it like a TV series. You have these characters that can be put in any situation, and we felt that Ted and John could sustain a totally different story. They were very strong in and of themselves, and so it was conceivable to do a sequel that would be worthwhile. So, it was fun to go in and figure out what we could do with these characters that would be completely different from what we did in the last movie.”