If like us, you enjoyed yourself watching Oscar-winning delight The Muppets in cinemas, you were probably ready to watch a sequel the minute the final credits rolled. Well, you can’t. At least, not yet. But while Kermit and Miss Piggy talked up the next movie as definitely happening during their UK promotional tour, Vulture reports that deals are now in place with original co-writer Nick Stoller and director James Bobin to start cranking out a Muppets sequel.

Right now, Bobin is only co-writing, but given that he did such a good job directing the first film, we’d imagine the sequel is his if he wants it – assuming he’s not snapped up to work on something else (The Moopets Take Manhattan, perhaps?)

And in these early stages, no one is talking about what shape the sequel’s plot might take, aside from another adventure for Kermit and co.

The one name not mentioned above is co-writer/star Jason Segel, who is too busy drinking champagne out of golden goblets while riding his custom-built chariot through the streets of Los Angeles. Or, as he would want you to believe, working on How I Met Your Mother, promoting The Five-Year Engagement (which Stoller co-wrote and directed) and Judd Apatow’s This Is Forty and whatever other writing/acting assignments he throws himself into during the sitcom’s hiatus. But given his close connection to Stoller and his Muppet love, we expect he’ll contribute somehow. Depending on how the script turns out, there’s every chance we’ll se his Gary character back in some capacity for the new Muppets film...