The Simpsons Showrunner Confirms Movie Sequel Was Being Discussed Prior to Pandemic

Almost two decades after audiences first met them in The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpson family made the jump to the big screen in 2007 with The Simpsons Movie, which proved to be an unexpected success, especially given that they had been starring in their own acclaimed sitcom for more than 15 seasons. Almost another 15 seasons later, the minds behind the series had been working on developing a follow-up film, only for the coronavirus pandemic to see the closure of theaters around the world, in addition to the entire industry seeing setbacks. Showrunner Al Jean noted that, if a new film were to move forward, it would have to be deserving of a theatrical release. The all-new Marvel-themed short The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is now streaming on Disney+.

“We were really talking about it a lot before the pandemic. And now I think just as a caution, I want to see how movies and, specifically, animated movies come back, because I wouldn’t want to do it just as a streaming experience,” Jean confirmed with ComicBook.com. “We really want it to be a theatrical movie because that was the point of the first one, it was a thing you couldn’t get anywhere else. I’m going to movies, I’m vaccinated. I’m really rooting for the movie industry, but I want to see what, personally, the landscape is. And then they also have so many great movies, I think they have five Avatar movies, five Star Wars movies in waiting … so they have a lot to roll out and we’re going to go see Black Widow this weekend. I’m going to support the theater, even though I have Disney+.”

In the first Simpsons Movie, pollution in Springfield saw the town isolated by a giant dome, with the Simpson family barely managing to escape before the town was cut off from the rest of the world. In the years since that film’s release, the characters have gone on hundreds of adventures, leaving fans to speculate about what type of narrative could warrant the big-screen outing.

While it might be a long wait before a new feature-length experience, fans can likely anticipate more The Simpsons shorts that tie into the expanding Disney brand.

When asked if The Simpsons could ever deliver an entire episode comprised of themed vignettes, similar to the themed “Treehouse of Horror” anthology episodes, Jean expressed, “Probably debatable. We’ll keep doing it as shorts. We’ll do other stuff on Disney+, or maybe go back to Marvel and Star Wars. With the series, we have another two seasons and we’re halfway into the first of those two. And it’s just amazing to me to be able to do new episodes with these characters, the same basic cast, and reflect the world of 2021. I mean, I never would’ve dreamed back in 1991 that we would still be going.”

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is now streaming on Disney+.

Would you like to see another Simpsons movie? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!