NYCC 2018: ‘Family Guy’ Panel Recap

Family Guy had a massive panel at New York Comic Con on Saturday, revealing some of the things fans can look forward to later this season.

The animated comedy has stayed on the air through many years and many reinventions. However, there are still plenty of stories to tell in Quahog, as executive producers Alec Sulkin, Kara Vallow and Rich Appel and voice actors Mike Henry and John Viener showed Saturday’s crowd.

The panel came complete with upcoming plot teasers, celebrity cameos and even an advance screening of an amazing clip.

Here are the highlights from the Family Guy panel at NYCC.

Fight With President Trump

The biggest news out of Saturday’s panel was a surprise sneak peek at an upcoming episode featuring President Trump. As producers have been teasing since July, the series will soon feature the president as a character. Earlier this week, they confirmed that the special episode will culminate in an all out fight between Peter Griffin and the commander-in-chief.

On Saturday, the producers shocked the crowd by showing the fight in its entirety. It was reminiscent of Peter’s many fights with the giant chicken that have come before, though of course it had more specific references to the president spread throughout. The episode will not actually air until January, but fans who made it out to NYCC know that it will be well worth the wait.

Justin Trudeau

The fight scene finally came to a close with the intervention of another world leader — Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Prime Minister rescued Peter and the president from certain death, and of course he made a few classic Canada jokes along the way.

Quagmire’s Daughter

Another upcoming plot line will reportedly feature Quagmire meeting a young lady at a bar, only to find that she is his biological daughter. The new character will be played by Mandy Moore, and may finally trigger a change of heart for the Quahog’s devious pilot.

Love Triangle

Yet another story that the panel teased was a bit of a switch up for Herbert, the infamous old man who lives near the Griffins on Spoon Street. According to voice actor Mike Henry, his character will soon hire Peter and chris to mow his lawn, not realizing that they are father and son. As they cut the grass, Herbert will develop feelings for Peter, leading to an awkward live triangle with no happy ending in sight.

‘Rick and Morty’

During the Q&A session, one fan asked the producers if they would be interested in doing a crossover episode with Rick and Morty. The producers were rather flippant at first, brushing the idea off with a slight diss at the much younger show.

The fan noted that someone had asked the same question last year, and he recalled the response being “when it’s a real show with more than two seasons, we’ll do it.” He asked if the massive deal with Adult Swim made it any more likely, but the producers did not think so.

Now it’s just a ‘no,’” Appel said dryly.

“If we’re on the show for another 100-plus episodes, I’m sure we’ll need to scrape all kinds of barrels,” Sulkin said. “I didn’t say the bottom of the barrel… That would be a two-way scraping of the barrel, let’s be clear.”

“It’s really hard to do a cross over,” Appel added, “and the Simpsons/Family Guy one took a long time, and it was based on people on the staff knowing one another and trusting one another… I would love to take characters from Rick and Morty and throw them into our show, but they’re not going to just give them to us.”

‘Bob’s Burgers’

Meanwhile, the Rick and Morty Question reminded Appel to tell the crowd that the cast of Bob’s Burgers will be making an appearance on Family Guy this season.

“More of a cameo,” he admitted, “but they’re good sports, and lots of fun to work with.”

Panel Video

For the full details from the panel, check out the livestream from Syfy Wire. Unfortunately, the sneak peek is blurred out.