You’re likely familiar with TED, a movie about a loudmouth talking teddy bear who gets high and drunk with his buddy, Mark Wahlberg. The first movie did well in the box office, grossing 218 millions dollars worldwide. Because of its success and because people love talking teddy bears, NBC Universal green-lit a sequel, TED 2, which comes out on June 26th.
SPOILERS AHEAD
So everyone was hush-hush about Tom Brady’s involvement in the movie. Was it a cameo? Did he have a prominent role and so on and so forth. We learned earlier this week that the plot of TED 2 centered on the talking teddy bear wanting a baby. And because TED doesn’t have a functional reproductive system, because, you know, he’s a teddy bear, he’s looking for potential sperm donors.
Enter the New England Patriots quarterback.
Ted 2, which is set in Boston, features a storyline revolving around fertility and Ted’s attempt to have a baby. As part of the gag, Brady shows up in the film (and in the ad) as a possible sperm donor. Universal has planned the Super Bowl commercial for the Seth MacFarlane-directed comedy for months. But according to one source, when Brady and the Patriots were accused earlier this month of intentionally deflating footballs to gain an advantage during the NFL playoffs, execs briefly considered altering the ad to include a reference to the controversy. Ultimately, that idea proved problematic (any changes to Ted’s dialogue require extensive animation tweaks) so the ad will remain as is, says the source. Another Universal source says there was never a possibility of altering the ad to take advantage of so-called “Deflategate.”
This is what likely happened.
NBC Intern: Guys, I have a great idea.
Studio exec: What?
NBC Intern: We should include deflategate in our TED 2 ad—the one that’s running during the Super Bowl. And we can joke about Brady’s deflated balls and stuff.
Studio exec: You’re fired.
So no, they never actually considered changing the ad. That’s not true at all.
