Sabrina Carpenter’s guest appearance on the new ‘Muppet Show’ won’t be her first Muppet encounter

It’s time to play the music and light the lights again — The Muppet Show is returning.

Disney+ and The Muppets announced the legacy show will be returning for a special 50th anniversary streaming special in 2026. And it’ll star Bucks County’s own Sabrina Carpenter.

The possibilities are endless: Will Carpenter and Miss Piggy get into a fight over Kermit? Will Piggy perform a version of "that moi espresso" featuring Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem? Will Pepé the King Prawn (who has his own Bucks County ties) flirt with Carpenter with a joke about how they’re both little shrimp?

Chances seem incredibly high.

But one thing’s for certain: This technically isn’t Carpenter’s first run-in with a Muppet. Real ones know Carpenter’s career dates back to childhood performances at Citizens Bank Park, where she sang at a Phillies game.

You know who else was at that game? A furry green guy hailing from the Galápagos Islands and canonical Muppet to any real enthusiast: One Mr. Phillie Phanatic.

For those uninitiated, Phillie Phanatic was launched in 1978 and created by Bonnie Erickson, puppet-making royalty responsible for designing or building Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Statler and Waldorf, and many other Muppet Universe members.

Following those characters’ success, Erickson and her husband, Wayde Harrison, established their own design studio, making creatures, costumes, and mascots for McDonald’s, Saturday Night Live, and more.

A referral from Muppets creator Jim Henson got them in the door with the Philadelphia Phillies, looking to graduate from the more static Phil and Phillis mascots. (It wasn’t always warm and fuzzy relations either; Erickson and Harrison threatened legal action against the Phillies over a mascot redesign, claiming it violated their intellectual property rights. The Phillies settled with the creators, who let the team use the original Phanatic version they created.)

» READ MORE: For years, he was Phil and she was Phillis. Decades later, these former Phillies mascots are still best friends.

And so, while it’s a stretch, by the voice of reason that Erickson is the mother of both Miss Piggy and the Phanatic, many enthusiasts believe in the school of thought that the Phanatic is himself a Muppet. No, really, there have been several think pieces on the topic over the years.

Carpenter’s history with the Philadelphia Phillies stretches far back, well before her days winning Grammys or headlining Coachella next year. She was around 13 years old when she sang “God Bless America” on the field in 2012. Her dad’s archived video footage from the performance even shows a glimpse of the Phanatic.

Carpenter also rocked a bedazzled Phils jersey during her headlining Short n’ Sweet tour stop in Philly last year. The Disney alum’s love for the Muppets is also no secret.

She’s talked about her love for the franchise over the years, listing Kermit as her favorite Hollywood date, according to Deadline. In an Instagram post, she called her upcoming guest appearance “career-defining.”

It’s been a big week of announcements for the starlet: she announced her Coachella headlining performance, Muppets guest role, and that she’ll be pulling double-duty as host and artist on Saturday Night Live next month within three consecutive days.

Here’s what else we know about her upcoming special with Kermit and the gang.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures will produce a Muppet Show special commemorating the original series’ 50th anniversary.

It will air sometime in 2026 — an exact date hasn’t been announced yet.

The special will be available on Disney+, which hosts additional Muppet content on its platform.

According to Deadline, the special will serve as a backdoor pilot, aka a trial run for a new series. If successful, we could get a new Muppet Show series.