The Simpsons has just hit its 800th episode milestone, which has naturally invited questions about when the show – which began in 1989 – will end. In a new interview, current showrunner Matt Selman hasn’t gone into the ‘when’, but the ‘how’.
And it turns out that the way they’re going to do it is to not do a definitive ending with a big finale episode. Rather, the show will just stop.
And the reason for that is because the show has already had its season finale, or at least it did a spoof of one.
Speaking to The Wrap, Selman said: “We did an episode about a year-and-a-half ago that was like a parody of the series finale.
“We jammed every possible series finale concept into one show, so that was sort of my way of saying ‘We’re never going to do a series finale’. We did a series finale in the middle of the show that made fun of all the ideas of wrapping everything up or ending.”
Fox
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Part of the reasoning is due to the format of the show, which Selman compared to Groundhog Day. “The show isn’t supposed to change. The characters reset every week”, he explained, while noting that there are rare exceptions that affect continuity, such as characters dying.
“If the show ever did end, there’s no finale, it would just be a regular episode that has the family in it. Probably a little Easter egg here and there, but no ‘I’m going to miss this place'”, Selman added.
Fox
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“We just want to make every separate episode its own amazing little mini movie that stands on its own and is original from the other 799.
“It’s a hard challenge, but it’s a really fun challenge, that quest for originality; and to really be worthy of the mantle of making a TV show where we can kind of do whatever we want and people still seem to like it.”
The Simpsons airs Sunday nights on FOX in the US. The show currently streams on Disney+ in the UK. The Simpsons Movie 2 is scheduled for release on 23 July 2027.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.