The Simpsons isn’t giving up its title as the longest-running cartoon in American history any time soon.
At The Simpsons’ panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, creator Matt Groening opened up about the show’s nearly four-decade run, revealing that even ahead of the show’s 37th season, there’s still “no end in sight” for Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie.
“I honestly thought 36 would be where we’d end it,” Groening joked when asked about The Simpsons’ humble beginnings on The Tracey Ullman Show, per Gold Derby. “We’re going to keep going until somebody dies.”
Don’t Miss
Speaking of death, Groening then segued into how the show plans on handling the future passing of President Donald Trump. “When you know who dies, The Simpsons predicts there will be dancing in the streets — until President Vance bans dancing in the streets,” Groening continued.
As for the show’s future — Vance or no Vance administration — back in January, four months before Fox renewed the show through its 40th season, showrunner Matt Selman revealed that there had been some discussion about how The Simpsons planned on eventually wrapping things up, a conversation he said ultimately led to the faux Bart Simpson birthday fake-out in last season’s meta premiere.
“The discussion that it would be so hard to do a last episode is what led to the fake series finale,” he told the New York Post, dubbing crafting a series finale as “sort of an impossible thing.”
“The show isn’t meant to end,” Selman added, noting that creating “a sappy crappo series finale, like most other shows do, would be so lame. So we just did one that was like over the top.”
But what about when the series actually does come to a close? The final installment, Selman said, would be nothing more than “a regular episode.”
“The characters in this crazy show don’t age,” he explained. “I think later we’ll just pick an episode and say that was the last one. No self-aware stuff. Or, one self-aware joke.”
