Kermit the Frog voice actor has been replaced

— -- Steve Whitmire, the actor who has provided the voice for the Muppets' Kermit the Frog for more than 25 years, has been replaced.

A spokesperson for the Muppets Studio has confirmed that Matt Vogel will perform Kermit beginning with “Muppets Thought of the Week” next week.

Whitmire began voicing Kermit after the death of Jim Henson in 1990.

Muppet site Tough Pigs was the first to report the news.

"If you play my voice next to Jim's voice, they're not the same. They're very close and the attitude is very close and because I had the experience of working with Jim very closely and knowing him, I think I gained some insight into where this character came from from within Jim," he once said in an interview. "The No. 1 goal in trying to continue a character like Kermit was to make sure that the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy. We wanted him to continue to be able to grow a bit, but have this foundation of what Jim started."

Whitmire's first IMDb credit was for "The Muppet Movie" in 1979, and most recently, he starred as Kermit, Beaker, and other characters in the ABC series "The Muppets."

Vogel has been doing voice work for some time, too. According to IMDb, he has appeared in 57 episodes of "Sesame Street" from 1987 onward, and has provided voices for such characters as Count von Count, Big Bird and more. He also worked on "The Muppets" series, voicing Floyd Pepper, Uncle Deadly and other characters.