In April 2017, Linehan said that the musical would draw inspiration from "The Book of Mormon", and would "go for the jugular ... you get all the things people loved about it, all the innocence and all the sweetness, but introduce a harder edge". Linehan also said that, being a special event, the musical would need to focus on a "world-shaking" story, possibly with Ted becoming Pope due to "some weird succession thing". In June, Linehan said that he hoped The Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon, who wrote the show's music, would return to compose the songs.