By Brian Boone

Jim Henson’s beloved, anarchic Muppets are in the midst of their big Hollywood comeback. They’ve been appearing in movies off and on for nearly 50 years, but for every The Muppet Movie or Muppet Treasure Islandthat’s been produced, quite a few others never got past the planning stage, like these.

The Next Muppet Movie

In 1999, The Jim Henson company bought a script from an outside writer called The Next Muppet Movie. Set in the contemporary era and a direct sequel to 1979’s The Muppet Movie, this one found the Muppets wildly successful and out of touch movie stars under the spell of an evil talent agent. Kermit tries to restart The Muppet Show after wrangling together all the far-flung, egomaniac Muppets, like Gonzo, the latest James Bond, and Animal who has become a rapper. 

The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made!

Starting in 1985, longtime Muppet operators, voices, and writers Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Juhl worked off and on for years on The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made! Designed to be made in between other, more expensive blockbuster projects, it was about directing a movie based on his own script, Into the Jaws of the Demon of Death, about a worldwide treasure hunt. He blows the budget on the opening sequence, and the movie gets progressively more cash-strapped. Disney considerd making it in 2009 but went with the franchise-rebooting The Muppets for 2011 instead.

Muppet Camelot

After 1992’s Muppet Christmas Carol was released to box office success and critical acclaim — it’s been called the most faithful adaptation ever of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, despite being acted out almost entirely by puppets — the Muppets nearly starred in another film based on an old British literary work. Creatives pitched a retelling of the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, but with Kermit, Fonzie, Miss Piggy, and such. The decision was down to that and another project which one out: Muppet Treasure Island.

Muppet Robin Hood and Muppet 1776

When Disney completed its purchase of The Jim Henson Company, and all Muppets properties, in 2004, it received a list of projects in some form of development. Among the movies were a couple of period piece feature films in the vein of Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol. Disney elected not to pursue any of these, so the world never got to see Robin Hood in which every character was played by a Muppet, nor a full-length movie adaptation of the birth-of-America stage musical 1776, also done with Muppets.

Big Bird Goes to Washington

Following the success of the first couple of Muppet films in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Jim Henson commissioned his staff to propose a movie based on the long-running TV show that, like The Muppet Show, also featured Muppets: Sesame Street. That film ultimately became the 1985 Big Bird road trip movie Follow That Bird, but in 1982, screenwriters got very far on a screenplay called big Bird Goes to Washington. It would have hit theaters in 1984, during the thick of election season, and would’ve shown what would’ve happened if Big Bird were elected President of the United States.