The Simpsons Showrunner Weighs in on How Long the Series Could Run

Starting as a series of shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpson family has become one of the biggest pop-culture sensations of the century, with The Simpsons sitcom showing no signs of stopping. Now airing Season 33, the program has had a handful of behind-the-scenes changes and updates, with showrunner Al Jean recently noting that he doesn’t see any sort of end for the series in sight, with it likely being possible for the series to hit a Season 40 without losing any steam. An all-new The Simpsons short, “The Simpsons in Plusaversary,” is now streaming on Disney+.

When asked by ComicBook.com if there have been talks to end the series at a specific number, Jean confirmed, “It’s never been about the round number. Every pickup is a two-year pickup, because it’s really hard for animation to do pickups yearly, so we’re going through Season 34, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if we went through Season 36, so then 38. There’s a number of factors that’ll impact the decision, but so far, it’s all systems go.”

In addition to the proper series being “all systems go,” the creative team has also been developing a variety of shorts for Disney+, allowing them to embrace different storytelling structures and fully embrace iconic Disney properties. 

In the new short, The Simpsons host a Disney+ Day party and everyone is on the list… except Homer. With friends from across the service and music fit for a Disney princess, Plusaversary is Springfield’s event of the year.  

While The Simpsons has already delivered shorts honoring the worlds of Star Wars and Marvel, Jean previously hinted at some of the other Disney brands he’d like to craft homages to.

“I look at the Disney+ tiles, Marvel and Star Wars, then there’s Pixar-Disney and Nat Geo,” Jean confirmed with ComicBook.com. “We actually wrote, before this all happened, we had written a Free Solo parody, but we were not necessarily going to shoot it now because Free Solo is a little bit of a 2019 thing. I would love to do Pixar and I would love to do Nat Geo and I would love to do the Disney classics. I mean, those are the ones that just are etched in my memory. So yeah, I’m very interested in doing all of them.”  

Stay tuned for details on the future of The Simpsons.

How long would you like to see the series run? Let us know in the comments below!