Inventing a new Muppet is rigorous work, it turns out — there are multiple prototypes, all manner of weights and fabrics and noses (or lack thereof) to consider, and then the puppet needs a personality. For Walter, the puppet star of the Muppets movie, Jason Segel and team envisioned a sweet, simple character, “a stand-in for [Segel], a hard-core Muppet superfan.†Or, more specifically, as Walter’s puppeteer Peter Linz told the New York Times: “They told me to think about Michael Cera — that if he was a puppeteer he would already have the job.†Yes, it’s a little surprising that Cera is not even an amateur puppeteer, but it all worked out for Linz, who got to sing Captain & Tennille karaoke with Jason Segel (and also landed the role). Important related question: Now that the world has a Michael Cera Muppet, when can we expect the Jesse Eisenberg version? How do we not have a Jesse Eisenberg Muppet already?