Seth MacFarlane’s Ted Return & 2026 Release Date Officially Unveiled

Published Sep 30, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. 

Ted is officially returning in 2026.

The franchise kicked off in 2012 with the comedy film Ted directed and written by Seth MacFarlane, in which he also voices and does motion capture for the titular, foul-mouthed teddy bear who is best friends with John (Mark Wahlberg). Their story continued in the 2015 movie sequel, Ted 2, while their pasts were explored in Peacock's live-action Ted series featuring a 16-year-old John (Max Burkholder). Another project has previously been teased with Ted: The Animated Series, which serves as a sequel to the last film.

Peacock has now announced that Ted: The Animated Series will debut on December 17. The premiere will include eight episodes, followed by more episodes to come in 2027. A trailer and poster have also been released, providing a first look at Ted, John, and the other characters in an animation style that is reminiscent of MacFarlane's Family Guy. Check out the trailer and the poster below:

Credit: Peacock

MacFarlane and Wahlberg can be heard reprising the roles of Ted and John in the trailer. From the movies, Amanda Seyfried and Jessica Barth also return to voice their original characters, Sam and Tami-Lynn. Sam is now married to John, and Tami-Lynn is still married to Ted.

In addition to MacFarlane, Wahlberg, Seyfried, and Barth, Kyle Mooney and Liz Richman are series regulars, and they are playing the franchise's new characters, Apollo and Ruth. Mooney is known for starring on Saturday Night Live, while Richman played Polly in the live-action Ted series and appeared more recently in Peacock's The Paper season 2.

The story is set 12 years after the ending of Ted 2, with the eponymous character and John as neighbors who both have families of their own and are working dead-end jobs. As their lifelong friendship continues, their bad ideas now primarily revolve around marriage, parenting, and the challenges that come with being an adult.

MacFarlane created the adult-animated series with Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh, who serve as co-showrunners and executive produced the live-action Ted show. The trio of co-creators are also executive producers of the new series alongside Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Jason Clark, Aimee Carlson, and Claudia Katz.

In terms of the live-action series, MacFarlane addressed Ted season 3's fate in March while speaking with ScreenRant, stating that "as of now, there are no direct plans" to continue the show. He later clarified to TheWrap that this is because "What I kept hearing [from Peacock and Universal] was, ‘Listen, the show is really expensive to produce and there’s no way to do it at a lower cost.’ So I wrote the last scene with Max [Burkholder] walking into a gym, presumably coming out as Mark Wahlberg in the first Ted film."

Bringing Ted to life in live-action is confirmed to be quite expensive, but a Family Guy-esque animated series is likely far less costly. As such, if season 1's viewership is high enough, and if Peacock and those involved with the show want to do more, another season is probably more viable than its live-action predecessor.

So far, the Ted franchise has been best-received in a series format, as the Peacock show has an 87% critics' score and 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. By comparison, the original movie has a 68% Tomatometer score and a 73% Popcornmeter score, while the sequel received 45% from critics and 50% from audiences.

Ted: The Animated Series debuts on Peacock on December 17.