Kermit the Frog Fired by Disney

Steve Whitmire claimed that he was ousted by Disney as the voice of Kermit the Frog in a blog post published on Thursday, July 13.

“As I am sure you can imagine, I have experienced every possible emotion since October 2016, when I received a phone call from The Muppets Studio’s executives to say they were recasting,” wrote the 57-year-old puppeteer, who has also voiced Rizzo the Rat, Beaker and other Muppets characters. “Through a new business representative, I have offered multiple remedies to their two stated issues which had never been mentioned to me prior to that phone call. I wish we could have sat down, looked each other in the eye and discussed what was on their minds before they took such a drastic action.”

A Muppets spokesperson confirmed Whitmire’s exit from the role to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, June 11. Whitmire, who has croaked the character of Kermit for 27 years, continued in his blog post, “I have remained silent the last nine months in hopes that the Disney company might reverse their course. Doing what is best for the Muppets is the lens through with all my interactions have been filtered.”

Read the rest of this article at Us Weekly.

Disney acquired Jim Henson's Muppet characters in 2004. Henson himself provided Kermit's voice until his death in 1990, when Whitmire took over.