Rick Gervais is in negotiations to play the lead human role in the upcoming Muppets movie, which is slated to start filming next month, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Gervais’s part is being kept under wraps, but it’s been compared to the role Jason Segel played in the 2011 Muppets reboot. Gervais would play one of three humans with a big part in the Europe-set movie (a ton of celebrity cameos are expected too), along with Ty Burrell as a lazy Interpol inspector and a Russian femme fatale character that is yet to be cast. If he ends up taking the job, the Muppets sequel will be Gervais’s first starring role in a movie since 2009’s The Invention of Lying. Gervais filmed a cameo for the previous Muppets movie but it was cut due to time constraints (although he can still be seen in the final musical number). Here’s hoping that somewhere in the new Muppets movie, Gervais will get a chance to lecture the Muppets about atheism.
