No Plans to Make ‘Simpsons Movie’ Sequel

For fans eagerly awaiting a follow-up to 2007’s The Simpsons Movie, don’t hold your collective breath. According to showrunner Al Jean, nothing is planned at this point.

According to the producer, the Simpsons crew would require a “good story” before considering another film, and would not work the other way around.

“We happen to be sort of swamped right now between this marathon and just doing the new season of the show,” Jean said. “So, to be quite honest, there is no movie in the works at the moment.”

However this doesn’t mean the Simpson family won’t hit the big screen again at some point.

“We would definitely be interested in doing one if we could come up with something we really believed in. We wouldn’t just do a sequel for the sake of doing a sequel, if there’s no need,” he added.

For those requiring a bit more hope, it’s at least clear that Jean has put some thought into it.

“It would probably be in 3D,” he said. “I thought the first one worked pretty well and my view of it was because it was the only movie and we did a lot of jokes about that. You can’t do those jokes a second time so we’d need a story that would justify it.”

A similar situation, in our minds, is the recent 21 Jump Street sequel, 22 Jump Street, which hedged its bets after a surprisingly successful debut by making a follow-up that spoofed the very idea of sequels, including their tendencies to flop. In the end, the second installment was a smash hit, but at its end, they made an even bigger joke about producing a multitude of additional sequels, creating quite an awkward situation going forward. Or maybe just a lucrative one. But back to The Simpsons.

“We did love doing a short – we did an Oscar-nominated short before Ice Age 4 so I can see that more likely than another full-length sequel feature,” Jean said.

The next big venture may be a touring version of their recent event at the Hollywood Bowl.

“We talked very loosely about it and said it would be great to do it in New York, London, and Sydney – but part of that would be getting the cast,” he explained.

“People like Conan O’Brien did it as a favor and I don’t think he would do it again, so we’d have to fill that gap. We could ask Ricky Gervais if he would do it in London. Our cast would do it – Hank Azaria and Yeardley Smith love doing it. We haven’t even approached anybody, but it’s possible. If it worked, it could be really fun. We had such a wonderful night.”

And they certainly weren’t the only ones.

[via Belfast Telegraph]