Disney and 20th Century Studios announced on Monday, September 29 that the long awaited sequel to The Simpsons Movie is officially a go, after years of discussions. The animated film will premiere on July 23, 2027, nearly 20 years to the day that the original movie premiered on July 27, 2007.
As Variety points out, The Simpsons 2 has taken the place of an untitled Marvel project, which the studio has removed from the schedule. As of immediately, there will be no Marvel Cinematic Universe projects released to theaters between Avengers: Doomsday on Dec. 18, 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars on Dec. 17, 2027.
Details are also thin at the moment, but here’s everything we know so far.
How long has The Simpsons Movie sequel been in development for?
The Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks first mentioned a sequel in a 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. At the time, he said that Fox had asked for a second feature film, but there were no immediate plans. “We’ve been asked to [develop it], but we haven’t. We’re doing a lot of other stuff,” Brooks said.
Then, on Dec. 31, 2014, just days before the release of the season 26 episode “The Man Who Came to Be Dinner,” executive producer Al Jean revealed on Twitter that the episode had been “seriously considered” as a potential plot for the sequel. In the episode, the Simpson family is transported to the home planet of Kang and Kodos, where they are informed they must choose one family member to be eaten in a ritual.
Jean then told Entertainment Weekly that the episode was originally supposed to premiere in 2013 as the season 24 finale, but that he and Brooks had decided to hold it as a possible movie sequel due to its “cinematic nature.”
“It just got to the point where if we were unsure about it as a movie, then it would be good to air the episode,” Jean explained. “And then if we do a movie, we’d just think of something else … So if you want to know what was thought of a possible Simpsons Movie 2, we just aired it for free.”
In 2017, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the first film, Jean told EW that the sequel was in “the very earliest stages.” Series creator Matt Groening then confirmed an eventual sequel at Comic-Con in 2019, as Disney—which had recently acquired 21st Century Fox and The Simpsons along with it—”wants something for its money.”
However, Groening noted the toll that the first film had on the staff.
“The first Simpsons Movie almost killed us,” he said. “We didn’t have a B-team waiting to do The Simpsons Movie, so the same people who wrote, animated, voiced and did the beat for The Simpsons TV show also did the movie. That was in 2007. We’re almost recovered, almost.”
While speaking with ScreenRant as recently as last year, Jean was still expressing hopes for a sequel, albeit with one caveat. “I want to see the animation business completely returned to what it was before the pandemic,” he said. “And then, I think if that was the case, it would make sense to do The Simpsons theatrically.”
Perhaps, given the recent successes of Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and Despicable Me 4, it finally felt safe to make a theatrically-released animated feature film.
What will The Simpsons Movie sequel be about?
Not surprisingly, Disney has not released any plot details yet, and we can probably expect it to stay that way. The plot of the 2007 film was so heavily guarded that the voice actors were actually told to shred their scripts following each recording session to prevent the plot from being leaked to the public.
“If the security around the Los Alamos nuclear lab had been as good as the security around this movie I’d sleep a lot better at night,” quipped Harry Shearer, who voices Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, and Reverend Lovejoy.
Likewise, the official announcement posted to Instagram simply reads, Homer’s coming back for seconds,” over an image of a familiar-looking yellow hand grabbing a donut with sprinkles shaped in the number “2.”
In other words, it will be a long two years for fans. But at least they can rest easy knowing that finally, a Simpsons Movie sequel is definitely on the way.
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