His role as Phil Dunphy on Modern Family sees Ty Burrell tapping into his well-honed comedy skills and occasionally seeming like a muppet-made-man. So we’re happy to see him signing on to the cast of the felt friends’ sequel film.

Fans who were hoping to see Miss Piggy face off against Christoph Waltz might be a little disappointed, though, since Burrell is replacing the Django Unchained star in the film after Waltz’ scheduled turned out to be a sticking point.

Burrell will be an Interpol inspector in the movie, which sees Kermit and co heading to Europe and encountering both the law and a Russian femme fatale (who has yet to be cast).

Director James Bobin is returning to the big folding chair for this one, and has also been co-writing the script with Nick Stoller. He’s stepping in to replace the original’s co-writer/star Jason Segel, who isn’t back for this sequel. Though given how close he is to the characters and his long working relationship with Stoller, you can bet he’ll have a had a look at their work…

The Muppets 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) is set to shoot in London in the coming months. Burrell will be heard as the voice of Mr Peabody in DreamWorks Animation’s Mr Peabody & Sherman. He’s also at work on comedy The Skeleton Twins with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig.