The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told Canada’s Sun News that a major character will die in the upcoming 25th season of the beloved animated sitcom, which echoes the death of the show’s plot cohesion and cultural relevance.
“I’ll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character” Jean said, “but I won’t say who it is.” A clued-up writer for Slashfilm figured out that this narrows down the list of possible deaths to Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa, Ms. Krabappel, Apu, Sideshow Bob, Moe, Grandpa, Barney, Krusty, Carl, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, and Duffman. The enigmatic nature of the death brings to mind the two-part mystery epic ‘Who Shot Mister Burns?’, which was without a doubt the most important thing to happen in my then-8-year-old life.
The Simpsons are no strangers to animated death: Ned Flanders’ wife Maude diddly-died fourteen years ago falling from a grandstand after being hit by a blast from a t-shirt cannon, Lisa lost a friend and jazz mentor when sax man Bleeding Gums Murphy carked it in ’95, and Frank Grimes electrocuted himself on sarcastic tirade against Homer in ’97 – although none of those were what you would call “major characters”.
The longest running show on television is entering its 25th season, and some people (ok, everyone) say that their best years are long behind them. While Jean mentioned in the interview that Guillermo Del Toro has contributed to the opening of the annual Treehouse Of Horror episode (which is kind of awesome), he also revealed the season will end with a Simpsons/Futurama crossover episode. A Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode is also planned for next year. Ugh.
Via Sun News
