The Simpsons Developing Full-Length IT Tribute and New Treehouse of Horror This Fall
The Simpsons is going all in on their beloved Treehouse of Horror events this year, with a standard Halloween episode as well as a second, which will be a full-episode parody of Stephen King's It. Inspired not only by the clown-fronted horror movie, but by the way fans have connected it to Krusty over the years, the episode marks the first time The Simpsons has done a full episode dedicated to one horror pastiche. Lest anybody who isn't a King fan be disappointed by the move, producers also promise that there will be a more standard Treehouse of Horror, which will lampoon three different stories over the course of its runtime.
The Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman said during a Comic Con interview that the "regular" episode would take aim at Death Note, and feature two other segments that the writers are not yet revealing. The It episode, though, is likely to be the one that really gets the audience talking.
"We've never done a single fantastical, bloody, scary, dark story, told over the scope of the the 20 minutes and 40 seconds that is an episode," Selman told Variety. "I think the fans are going to be really excited. Certainly the tattoos already exist of Krusty as Pennywise. So we're just writing towards the tattoos now. You want as many tattoo worthy moments in your episodes as you can."
Krusty will have more than just that one big story this year, though; apparently, there will be another episode in which he takes on a daytime talk show (think Ellen), and struggles to maintain a constantly-peppy personality.
After more than 700 episodes over 30-plus seasons, Selman told Variety that the hope is to keep increasing ambition, and using The Simpsons as a platform to do something interesting every chance they get.
"It's a big 'Simpsons' world out there. And there's so many people and so many directions we could go," he added. "It's a crazy canvas for sure. For now, our main goal is, let's just make every episode special and make every episode epic. Instead of announcing a movie, make every episode its own little movie in terms of the scope of its emotion and concept and idea. If every episode doesn't have a movie-level poster, don't do it as an episode."
The series airs on Sunday nights on Fox, and you can watch previous seasons on Disney+.