Yahoo Movies The Simpsons Will Explain How They've Predicted Several Future Events in Upcoming Season 34 Episode
Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection The Simpsons
The Simpsons has predicted several major world events throughout its decades-long run — but there's a method to their approach, according to the people behind the show.
Series writer, executive producer and showrunner Matt Selman opened up to Deadline about what's next for the animated hit as it gears up for its season 34 premiere next month. During the conversation, Selman revealed that viewers will finally learn how the show has managed to accurately predict the future in an upcoming episode.
"We have another crazy conceptual episode that explains how The Simpsons know the future. It's a conceptual episode with lots of crazy stuff in it, but it does an explanation of how The Simpsons can predict the future," explained Selman, 50.
"I'm very excited about Season 34," he continued. "You can't just rest on your laurels. You have to be pushing yourself and challenging yourself and making sure every episode is distinct and emotional and visual and compelling and scary and cinematic. So we do that on like 85 percent of them. That's pretty good. I always thought a B+ was a good grade."
Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection The Simpsons
According to Selman, keeping the show as fresh as possible after all these years is still the team's "greatest creative challenge."
"Luckily the world keeps delivering things that need reflecting on in the Springfield mirror. So that's a thank-you to the world, but also the world needs to do better," he explained. "I don't have any problem with repeating an emotional dynamic. There's only so many emotional dynamics, like we have a table read where Lisa and Marge have a fight about a charity they co-founded, but Lisa and Marge have had plenty of fights before."
Selman added, "You can't cross off emotional family storytelling just because you've told those emotional family stories before. But you have to have something new to say about the outside world or a new facet of the relationship to explore that's more specific and more interesting."
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The Simpsons first premiered in December 1989. Over the years, the animated staple has successfully predicted various world events including Donald Trump becoming president, Disney's purchase of Fox, the 9/11 attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic and three separate Super Bowls.
However, questions about the show's future have also loomed. Fortunately for fans, executive producer and writer Al Jean doesn't see it wrapping up anytime soon.
"To be honest, the talk of ending, especially as we're doing really well on Disney+ in the U.S. and the U.K. and other countries in the Americas, I don't see anybody going, 'Let's wrap it up, or figure out how to get out of it' at the moment,'" he told Radio Times in November 2021.
Season 34 of The Simpsons premieres Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
