After nearly 20 years on TV, “The Simpsons” made their feature film debut in 2007 with “The Simpsons Movie.” That film, debuting in the middle of the summer, went on to gross over $500 million worldwide. Now, almost 10 years later, the question remains if we’ll ever see a sequel to the animated hit film. Producer James L. Brooks spoke with LRM and was asked that very question.
“Fox very much wants us to do another one, and maybe we will and maybe we won’t — that’s where it is,” Brooks explained. “How do we divide our labors, and do we believe in the idea we have? We may go into a more active exploration of a second movie soon.”
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“The Simpsons” is a unique case. Very rarely does a TV series translate to a successful film, let alone while the series is still alive and well on the small screen. Brooks also mentions they’re still going strong on the TV series with no end in sight. After almost three decades, the series is a mainstay on the Fox TV schedule. While the studio would love for another film, the creators would have to work on the series and movie sequel concurrently. And then there’s the question of whether or not the show still carries the same zeitgeist-capturing quality it did in its early days, and if there’s enough of an audience to make another big-screen outing worthwhile.
Whether or not Fox will make a ‘Simpsons Movie’ sequel, it’s clear that the studio wants it to happen. Normally when that’s the case, things get made. It may not be in the next five years, but fans waited 20 years for the first one, so they’re patient enough to keep waiting.