The Muppets was one of the best films of last year. An amazing mix of nostalgic respect, unrelenting optimism and brilliant songs that rank among the very best in the franchise. A sequel to such a successful film is inevitable.

The Vulture is reporting that the deal for said sequel has already been made, but one key element of the first film is thus far absent:

[Jason Segel] won’t be returning to the keyboard. Segel, a star of How I Met Your Mother — now in its eighth season — has a burgeoning film career, and Disney insiders tell Vulture that between his commitment to the CBS sitcom, his other feature-writing efforts, and promotional work for Five Year Engagement (due out this coming April) and Judd Apatow’s This Is Forty (in December), there won’t be time to collaborate on a Muppets sequel.

This only means he might not be apart of the writing stage, but with Nicholas Stoller (his original co-writer) and director James Bobin signed on the original flare should still be present. The news also doesn’t mean Segel couldn’t star in the sequel either, so it is possible this is only a minimal, semantics based departure.

So good, potentially great, news for Muppet fans out there, but we hope once they move forward with the movie they bring back Bret McKenzie too. His song stylings fit the Muppets perfectly.

That’s right. You heard it here last. It seems that the newest film featuring our favorite Henson classics The Muppets is yet another “plan for the left to bad mouth affluent businessmen” as the film’s main antagonist is an evil oil baron.

According to a report (yes, they felt the need to do an entire segment on this) from Fox Business, Jason Segal’s Muppet film is guilty of negatively portraying a simple business owner in the form of Chris Cooper’s “Tex Richman”, an evil baron who’s set on destroying the Muppet studios to drill for oil.

The fact that Fox, or anyone for that matter, would think that it’s news that The Muppets, a creation of Jim Henson, is just now taking aim at the aptly labeled 1%, is just preposterous.

Note that the news report barely mentions the existence of Statler and Woldof, who were doing the “old, rich, white antagonist” act before this reporter was able to walk. Take a look at the downfall of modern journalism in true form after the jump, and catch The Muppets in theaters now, or the oil barons of the world win.

It turns out even decades of laughter through the form of hundreds of felt puppets can’t beat the Kristen Stewart pregnancy movie. After having one of the most intense marketing campaigns that Disney has ever executed for The Muppets, Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 still managed to beat the film in the box office by over $10 million during the holiday weekend.

The vampy melodrama got the #1 spot for the second weekend in a row with $42 million this weekend, while Muppets (which made $42 in total since it opened on Wednesday) was only able to pull in an estimated $29 million. It looks like vampires really are more popular than singing frogs and pigs. Shame.

Also hitting theaters this weekend, Sony’s Arthur Christmas fell flat with an estimated $12.7 opening weekend. Speaking of falling flat, Scorsese’s Hugo had an even weaker opening, as it came in 5th place with just over $11 million.

These films could very well do better as we draw closer to the holidays, but don’t expect to see much in the form of sequels for these family classics. Those films may not have performed as well as they could have, but what did was the Weinstein’s My Week with Marilyn which pulled off just over $2 million for its first weekend.

It takes a pretty big milestone for the Henson Company to decide to introduce a new a new Muppet. They introduced Pepe the King Prawn back in 1996 with the launch of the Muppets Tonight TV series, and that may just be the last time we’ve seen a new Muppet join the gang. Until now.

With Jason Segal’s new Muppets script comes a brand new Muppet named Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, who wishes nothing more than to visit Muppet Studios with his big brother, played by Segal. Consider this character a bit of a surrogate for Segal’s love of Henson’s work and the craze which was and still is The Muppets.

We’ve got a brand new clip for you, in which Walter and his brother Segal sing about their beloved hometown and why they wouldn’t need anything outside of it.

Take a look at the clip after the jump, and be sure to check out our other two clips that we brought you this week, and race out to the theaters as The Muppets hits theaters today.

Some of our favorite heroes from yesteryear have their opposites. Whether it’s Captain Planet and Captain Pollution, He-Man and Faker or even Superman and Bizarro, our favorites always had an antithesis to their heroicism.

That’s exactly what we’re going to get this Thursday when The Muppets hits theaters. While our favorite gang of singing frogs, bears, pigs, and the such are forced out of the entertainment industry, it’s time for a new gang to take form. That gang? They’re called “The Moopets.”

Consisting of Miss Poogy, Foozie the Bear, Roowlf, and a Janice and Kermit look-alike, the team wanted to pick up the slack where that other musical act left off in the 90s.

We’ve got a brand new clip for you today in which Miss Piggy and her Muppets take on Miss Poogy and her Moopets. As you can imagine, sparks fly.

Check out the clip after the jump, and make it back here every day for more Muppets clips leading up to the film’s release on Thursday.