Back in 2007, The Simpsons Movie brought Fox’s long-running animated sitcom to tremendously profitable new heights, raking in roughly $500 million dollars. While extremely profitable, posting boast-worthy numbers, this was just another achievement on a rapidly growing list for creator Matt Groening’s seemingly unstoppable cartoon, which has since become America’s longest-running primetime scripted television series. But with such a tremendous cinematic success and rave reviews (90% critics score/78% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes), The Simpsons Movie 2 seemed to be a no brainer, right?
Well here we are in the year 2013 and we still haven’t seen Homer and his family return for a second movie, and if we’re to believe Groening and his fellow producer/director David Silverman, we won’t be seeing The Simpsons Movie 2 for quite some time still.
During UCLA’s annual entertainment symposium, David Silverman said we won’t see another Simpsons movie for “maybe another 10, 15 years,” which has to be followed up with the statement “if at all.” When asked about a sequel and the production on the first, Groening had the following to say:
It took us four years [to make the movie] and it killed us.
Vulture specified that the production stole animators and other resources from the ongoing seasons during that time, which is what Matt is referencing by saying “it killed us.”
Honestly, I’m impressed Fox hasn’t strong-armed a sequel out of Groening and his team based on how monetarily huge The Simpsons Movie was, but I guess that’s the kind of respect you earn when becoming one of the most iconic television shows in history. Sure, I’ll admit The Simpsons has lost some of its bite in the most recent seasons, as I’m no longer religiously tuning in every Sunday to see how Homer makes a fool of himself this time, but I still respect how these yellow characters have become one of the most beloved and adored brands in the entire television industry.
With no end in sight though as The Simpsons keeps churning out a seemingly never-ending supply of episodes, we have to assume by the above comments that The Simpsons Movie 2 won’t become a reality until The Simpsons television domination finally comes to a close. It sounds like Groening went through hell while trying to manage the show and the film at the same time, so he likely won’t want to repeat that experience, and what better way for the franchise to stay relevant after the final season than to release a film one or two years after the series finale? Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
While I’d personally like to wait less than 15 years to see The Simpsons Movie 2, I understand exactly why we haven’t seen it yet. The Simpsons Movie was hilarious, still stands as a bonafide hit, probably brought younger viewers into the TV series – why waste all the hype of a sequel while you’re riding one on-going high? Like I said, don’t expect a sequel until the momentous day when The Simpsons retire from television work, but once that happens, you better believe talk of their big-screen sequel will catch on like wildfire. Until then, all we can do is wait – and probably for a pretty long time.