The Muppets are one of the most iconic and beloved pop culture franchises in the world. Created by Jim Henson, The Muppets broke out with the general audience with their prime-time television series The Muppet Show. The characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, Animal, and many more have become known the world over. Like other great television series like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, The Muppets eventually went on to star in a slew of feature films.

Unlike many other major movie franchises, the basic conceit of the Muppets being felt puppets inhabiting a world filled with celebrity cameos and making meta jokes means the series does not have a strict sense of continuity. The films mostly stand on their own, acting more as stories the Muppets are putting on, similar to their Muppet Show performances. However, if one did want to make a chronological timeline of the Muppet movies based on their story setting, it creates an interesting viewing experience. Here are all the theatrically released Muppet movies in chronological order (and by order of release below).

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The Muppet Movies in Chronological Order

  • Muppet Treasure Island The Muppet Christmas Carol The Muppet Movie The Great Muppet Caper The Muppets Take Manhattan Muppets From Space The Muppets Muppets Most Wanted

Muppet Treasure Island

     Buena Vista Pictures Distribution 

The Muppets’ roots as a theater troupe essentially mean that both Muppet Treasure Island and the following film The Muppet Christmas Carol are essentially performances put on by the Muppets. Muppet Treasure Island story would be the furthest set in the past with the story taking place in the 18th century so, in chronological terms, it would be the first in any timeline even if the assumption is this is a show put on them after they are famous.

Muppet Treasure Island features Tim Curry as the main human character playing Long John Silver with much of the supporting cast being inhabited by Muppets, like Kermit the Frog as Captain Alexander Smollett and Miss Piggy as Ben Gunn. Muppet Treasure Island performed well at the box office but barely broke even, indicating maybe the Muppet brand was not as strong as it once was in addition to the notion that audiences weren’t interested in pirate movies that would later be given new life with Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

     Walt Disney/Jim Henson

Moving up next by a whole century would be The Muppet Christmas Carol, with the various Muppet characters bringing the classic Charles Dickens Christmas story to life. The central human Ebenezer Scrooge is played by Michael Caine, with the primary Muppets at the center being Gonzo and Rizzo as the story’s narrator.

Despite featuring a cast of Muppet characters that in inherently silly, The Muppet Christmas Carol has a rather strong emotional core to it and is one of the more faithful adaptations of the story. The movie has become a holiday classic for many, as well as a great first introduction to A Christmas Carol for young kids. The film is even set to get a director’s cut re-release in 2022 on Disney+, restoring the cut song “When Love is Gone”.

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The Muppet Movie

     Associated Film Distribution

The first movie The Muppets ever starred in and acting as an origin story for how the group came together, The Muppet Movie focuses on Kermit the Frog traveling from the swamp to Los Angeles, and meeting many of the Muppets on the road. The film ends with studio executive Lew Lord (played by Orson Welles himself) signing the Muppets to a “standard rich and famous contract.”

The Muppet Movie set the template for future Muppet movies, featuring both a strong comedic sense with sharp self-awareness while also having a strong emotional heart showing these felt characters could be just as emotionally engaging as any actor. It also features the now iconic song “The Rainbow Connection”, which has become the anthem of the Muppets and creator Jim Henson.

The Great Muppet Caper

     ITC Entertainment/Henson Associates

While The Muppet Movie told an origin story for the team, The Great Muppet Caper adopted the format of dropping the Muppets into different genres and stories that other films would follow. The film features the Muppets caught up in a jewel heist while investigating the robbery as reporters (with a great gag being that Kermit and Fozzy are supposed to be identical twins that nobody can tell apart).

The Great Muppet Caper was the first Muppet movie to be released following the conclusion of The Muppet Show and helped establish that these characters would endure long after their series ended.

The Muppets Take Manhattan

     Henson Associates

The Muppets Take Manhattan is a rather emotional moment in the franchise, as a good portion of the movie is about the group breaking up. While they do reunite, the film felt like a fitting conclusion to the Muppet trilogy as the first film focused on how the team came together with the third film showing the breakup but also their eventual reuniting.

The Muppets Take Manhattan is notable for a number of reasons. The flashback segment in the film featuring the Muppets as babies inspired the hit animated series Muppet Babies. The movie was also the final released Muppet film theatrically for eight years until The Muppet Christmas Carol and was the final Muppet movie that both creator Jim Henson and legendary puppeteer Richard Hunt worked on before they passed away.

Muppets From Space

     Sony Pictures Releasing

Muppets From Space was the first Muppet movie in fifteen years that saw the characters in a contemporary setting and thought to try to answer one of the franchise’s long-held questions that nobody really actually cared about: what is Gonzo? Unlike Kermit, Fozzy, and many others who are clearly animals or some form of a human, Gonzo has always been unclear and Muppets from Space revealed he is in fact an alien.

Despite receiving mixed to positive reviews, Muppets From Space was a box office disappointment and was crushed by other big summer movie offerings. It was the end of the Muppets as a theatrical brand for twelve years as the franchise moved to a direct-to-video route.

The Muppets

     The Walt Disney Company

The Muppets made their grand return to theaters in the 2011 film simply titled The Muppets. The movie was based around the idea of the characters as a pop culture institution, with new character Walter and his brother Gary (Jason Segel, who also was the film’s writer) deciding they needed to reunite the group to put on a show to save the old Muppet Studios. The Muppets follow closely The Muppet Movie, in that much of the film is about bringing the Muppets together while also featuring plenty of callbacks including the “standard rich and famous contract” being a vital plot point.

The Muppets as a film in many ways set the template for many legacy sequels that would follow like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with a new protagonist being a fan/aware of the adventures of the previous film. It is about a fan reminding the audience why this franchise was popular, to begin with. It is a big budget update of the original Muppet Show format, highlighting them putting on a show and bringing the franchise back to its roots to revive it. The movie was a hit with critics and audiences and even went on to win The Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Man or Muppet.”

Muppets Most Wanted

     20th Century Fox

The latest Muppet film is 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted. Muppets Most Wanted is the most direct sequel the franchise has ever had, even picking up directly as 2011’s The Muppets end. Yet the film has a lot of fun jokes at how quickly the events of the previous film are forgotten about/ignored (like the fact that Gary and his fiancée Mary are never seen or Walter’s reduced role in the film compared to being so vital to the previous one).

While The Muppets was about reminding audiences why the franchise was popular, Muppets Most Wanted was a return to the format of The Great Muppet Caper dropping the characters into a new genre of story, here an international crime spree film with a villain named Constantine who looks like Kermit framing him and taking his place in the Muppets. Muppets Most Wanted ups the comedy of the previous film, even highlighting just how many sequels the franchise has had with the opening number “We’re Doing A Sequel”. While this was the last time the Muppets led a feature film, the franchise is still going strong on Disney+ with specials like Muppet Haunted Mansion and the upcoming The Muppets Mayhem.

The Muppet Movies in Order of Release

  • The Muppet Movie - June 22, 1979 The Great Muppet Caper - June 26, 1981 The Muppets Take Manhattan - July 13, 1984 The Muppet Christmas Carol - December 11, 1992 Muppet Treasure Island - February 16, 1996 Muppets From Space - July 14, 1999 The Muppets - November 23, 2011 Muppets Most Wanted - March 21, 2014