The Simpsons Movie hit cinemas this time ten years ago, to much fanfare and - admittedly - calls that the show had finally jumped the shark and should face its end with dignity.
Still, here we are ten years later and the show hasn't gone off the air (yet), but what of the long-rumoured sequel that was teased at the end of the first one? In a wide-ranging interview in EW with the producers and writers behind the first movie, the question of a Simpsons Movie 2 was broached and the response wasn't negative - but not exactly effusive either.
"I’d love for there to be another one," said David Silverman, one of the long-running producers on the show. "We’re still a ways away from it. We talk about this and that. We’re thinking it over, but nothing’s happening just yet... It’s still daunting because it really knocked the stuffing out of us to do the movie and the show at the same time."
Meanwhile, showrunner Al Jean said that the idea of a sequel has been discussed "just in the vaguest strokes, just in the possibility of it," and that the movie is in "the very earliest stages."
Ultimately, you'd have to think that a sequel movie would be something towards the eventual nail in the coffin for the show. While it still makes Fox obscene amounts of money, is able to rope in any and all celebrity guests that it deigns to select, there's no denying that The Simpsons is no longer what it once was. More to the point, how many times can you keep going over the same ground?
While The Simpsons is beloved by all, the real question is whether anyone out there really hankering for another Simpsons Movie.
Via EW