I think so too! I miss the prominence of the Mayhem.
The Mayhem has been a lot more prominent in the last few projects than they were. If there wasn't too much going on in the last film, I'm sure they would have squeezed a number in somehow. But I'm glad they at least got to sing a verse of something at least. That's more than we can say for the last 3 theatricals. But the talk show performance of "Can you Picture That" and that Tree Lighting performance prove that can come back with full force.
The problem is, a script that has the luxury, an a film that has the running time of giving them 2-4 minutes to sing something, be it germane to the plot or not (hopefully germane to the plot, Night Life didn't have much of a punch to it compared to Can You Picture that or You Can't Take no For an Answer).
I hope the script is much looser this time around, with less bulky plot points (you could make at least 2 movies out of what they had... maybe a trilogy), and more time for Muppety wackiness. And hopefully the editors don't take a hatchet to key points, either.
Speculation is great as long as members don't shut down the speculation of others in favor of their own. That's no fun. And like I said, just because Kermit and Miss Piggy will reportedly play a prominent role in the story does not mean it will mostly be about them. It just means they will be part of the central focus. The Mayhem and other characters could have important ties to the focus as well. Heck, even Clifford is a possibility. Nobody knows.
The problem with speculation is that every hypothetical usually winds up misconstrued, it turns real, and then there's a panic about something that's not going to happen. Look at every time they bring up the Fraggle Rock film. Someone always speculates that there's a chance that the surviving cast may or may not be able to perform, and that always leads to blind panic about who's going to replace who, and if such and such is going to be CGI instead... and it just goes off from there.
That's the dual problem. We want excitement for the film, and there's a lot of enthusiasm, but you can never tell when an update may pop up. And if excessive muffining happens, the thread just becomes avoidable (unless you want to contribute to muffining). I don't think we've quite reached that level.... but we have to admit, it's going to be a long time coming for any news one way or the other.
There's ALWAYS a tricky period of silence when they tend to the project, and you'd better be ready to not hear anything for quite some time.