Matt Groening responds to Nancy Cartwright’s recent claim that The Simpsons might end after 40 seasons
Matt Groening has had his say on Nancy Cartwright's recent suggestion that The Simpsons could be coming to an end once and for all at 40 seasons.
It's something fans across the world have long been dreading - whispers of The Simpsons finally wrapping after an incredible 36 years on our screens.
Nancy Cartwright, the actor behind the voice of Bart, somewhat got the rumour mill swirling when she recently expressed her opinion over when the show would be coming to an end - which is sooner than many fans would like to hear, despite the news of the second movie being in the works.
Now, the man who we can all thank for bringing The Simpsons into our lives, Matt Groening, has addressed Cartwright's suggestion that the show will end at 40 seasons, which if correct, means there's only three more seasons to go.
'We're never going to end'
Answering questions from fans at Disney's D23 event in Anaheim, California, on Friday (14 August), Groening said: "There’s many things about the Simpsons on the internet that you cannot believe.
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"I don’t think.. My guess is that was a tossed off remark made by Nancy, I don’t know.
"But no, we’re never going to end, come on!"
What did Nancy Cartwright say about the future of The Simpsons?
Cartwright's comment about the show's future came during an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, in which Rosenbaum asked how long she thought the legendary cartoon would run.
"40 [seasons]" Cartwright said, before reiterating that was her opinion.
Rosenbaum then asked what she would do if producers said 'We wanna keep going?', with Cartwright joking: "Are we still alive?" before asking whether everyone else would still be around, too.
"Yeah, we’ll keep going then," she said.
Matt Groening on recasting or retiring characters whose voice actors have died
Elsewhere during the Q&A at D23, a major fan event which is held every two years, Groening and the panel of Simpsons writers were asked the difficult question of how the decision is made to either retire or recast characters whose voice actors have passed away.
Groening said: "It’s a tough thing to do, we’ve lost some great people… amazing people. I think, part of the thinking on our part is what would the actor have wanted? Would they want their character to live on or not?
"Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t."
He then gave an example: "We had a script supervisor named Doris Grau, and she was so funny, we named a character after her - Lunch Lady Doris. And when she died, we wanted to keep the character alive, so we changed it, it’s Lunch Lady Dora now.
"It’s Tress MacNeille who does the voice because she did such a beautiful impression of Doris Grau, so it’s a tribute."
The Simpsons is currently airing its 37th season, with season 38 due to air on September 27, 2026.
Topics: Disney, The Simpsons, TV and Film, Entertainment
Emily Puckering