'The Simpsons' Showrunner Posts Perfect Welcoming for Disney and Fox Merger

After this week, Disney will have officially purchased 20th Century Fox, bringing a slew of new [...]

By Jenna Anderson

After this week, Disney will have officially purchased 20th Century Fox, bringing a slew of new intellectual properties and assets under the company's umbrella. And based off of a new tweet, that could lead to some pretty amusing crossovers.

Al Jean, who serves as showrunner on the long-running animated series, recently shared an illustration of Homer Simpson choking Mickey Mouse. The illustration, which was previously shared by fellow EP James L. Brooks shortly after the deal was first announced, was originally drawn by The Simpsons creator Matt Groenig.

The Simpsons' role in the Disney/Fox purchase has been something interesting, especially because the series happened to predict the acquisition many years prior. In August of last year, FOX confirmed that they would be working to keep the series on their network, something that still appears to be the case.

"Simpsons is so much a part of the brand," FOX CEO Dana Walden said at the time. "There's been such an incredible halo effect of that show and the other animated series that are on our Sunday night. There are no plans for them to go anywhere other than FOX. We have a couple years of episodes already in progress on The Simpsons. So down the line, what kind of decision is made I can't really speak to. But for the foreseeable future, there's so much upside and benefit to having a great Emmy Award winning, smart, provocative, quality show, that there's no consideration of not ordering more Simpsons."

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Jean spoke about the Disney/Fox deal, and what impact it would have on The Simpsons.

"In terms of milestones, I thought if it ended it would be 30, but it didn't—we're doing 32—so now, I think the biggest variable is we're obviously going to be a Disney property, and what Disney wants to do with the show." Jean explained. "I like doing it as we do it for Fox but I don't know what's going to happen. I think they want it to continue, and think it's one of the reasons they paid so much for Fox."

"There couldn't have been [any decisions from Disney] yet because, which I found out, prior to the merger the acquiring company can't even give a suggestion or make a note—they need to remain at arm's length." Jean continued. "So the decision was to pick it up for two years just because if we had waited for the merger, we would have had too much downtime for our animation crew. So what Disney will do we'll know after the two years."

What do you think of The Simpsons' take on the Disney/Fox merger? share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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