The cast for Anchorman: The Legend Continues – or Anchorman 2 if you prefer numbered sequel titles instead of surnames – just keeps getting better and crazier. Original stars Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate have all long been confirmed to reprise their roles as the Channel 4 News Team with original director Adam McKay once again calling the shots and writing the script. The cast has also recently added names like John C. Reilly, Kristen Wiig, James Mardsen, Meagan Good, and Dylan Baker, most of whom’s roles have yet to be revealed.

And now the biggest Anchorman 2-related casting news has dropped as it was announced today that none other than Harrison Ford has signed on to co-star in the eagerly-anticipated comedy sequel. Ford would be playing the role of a legendary newscaster in the mold of Tom Brokaw who is admired by Ferrell’s clueless but charismatic anchorman Ron Burgundy. The silver screen icon best known for playing larger-than-life action heroes like Han Solo in Star Wars and the title character in the Indiana Jones film series also played a newscaster in the 2010 romantic comedy Morning Glory.

Fans of the Will Ferrell comedy insta-classic, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, have been waiting for a sequel for a long time. Burgundy himself confirmed the sequel in grand fashion last March, and we’ve since seen a teaser poster and some ultra-teaser trailers.

To give fans something a little more solid to schedule their year around, Paramount Pictures has announced a release date for Anchorman: The Legend Continues, sharing that they’ve reserved the December 20, 2013 spot.

A new spoof is on the way, this time taking on the Paranormal Activity franchise and other found footage types, which is titled A Haunted House.

The movie stars Marlon Wayans, who was part of the first two Scary Movie flicks (the only two worth watching) trying to recapture some of that absurdly silly R-rated parody magic.

Whether he’ll achieve that goal or if the movie will end up in the massive pile of mind-bogglingly awful spoof movies we’ve seen over the past decade or so remains to be seen. For now, you can watch the Red Band trailer for the movie below. NSFW warning in effect after this point.

Although the teaser trailer for Anchorman: The Legend Continues was leaked early last week, I didn’t feel it was proper to bring you a trailer that was in poor quality… and leaked. Luckily the teaser trailers for the upcoming sequel has popped online today and you can take a look it here below. The Funny or Die teaser is a bit different from the one that was attached to The Dictator, but I think we could care less how different the two teasers are.

Like the teaser trailer for Skyfall, these teasers for the Anchorman sequel is effective and doesn’t need to go into detail about the plot – maybe that’s because news of a sequel broke in March. It also sets the tone by reminding us what makes this news team (Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner) so hilarious. Everyone has their own hilarious phrase, except Brick of course, who seems to have trouble finding the words.

I remember when I first saw Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy — it was on the big screen opening dayin 2004, and as I fondly recall I laughed my ass off many times during that first viewing and then some. Then when the movie was released on DVD I bought it and began to watch it repeatedly. Soon Anchorman became one of my top five favorite comedies. It has become a signature movie in my life, a wonderful comedy loaded with memorable characters, hilarious gags, classic comedic set-pieces, and terrific dialogue that my friends and I never tire of quoting to each other. The movie was so great in fact that I seriously desired for a sequel to be made. That doesn’t usually happen much with comedies I love.

Action, science-fiction, and horror films easily lend themselves to being franchised, but franchising comedy is a much difficult prospect. But the principal cast and crew of Anchorman saw what a hilarious and special film they had made and sought for years to make a sequel, not out of the mercenary pursuit of greater wealth and exposure but out of the love they had for the characters and the world they created. It was just that the studio was adamant against making it for reasons that sound utterly ridiculous when you say them out loud. The project’s future seemed so questionable that the original film’s star was considering it dead in the water as recently as a few weeks again.

Then a funny thing happened just a few days ago….