Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman to star in Ted 2

Actors Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman have joined the cast of comedy Ted 2.

"Yesterday Liam Neeson, today Morgan Freeman. Not a bad week for #Ted2," tweeted the film's director and writer Seth MacFarlane, on Wednesday.

The pair will star alongside Mark Wahlberg and Amanda Seyfried in the sequel, due out in June 2015.

The film sees MacFarlane reprise his role as the voice of the lewd, overgrown teddy bear. The original 2012 film made $549.4m (£281.5m) worldwide.

It reportedly became the highest-grossing original, R-rated comedy of all time.

Neeson co-starred with MacFarlane and Seyfried earlier this year, playing the villain in A Million Ways to Die in the West - a Western comedy also written and directed by MacFarlane.

The film failed to make an impression at the box office, grossing $17.1m (£10.4m) in its opening weekend in May, a fraction of the $54.5m (£33.4m) earned by Ted on the same weekend two years previously.

Neeson is currently playing a private investigator in A Walk Among the Tombstones. A third instalment of Taken will be released next year.

Freeman is currently starring in Dolphin Tale 2. His forthcoming film Ruth and Alex premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.