Television

D23 Expo 2022: ‘The Simpsons’ panel reveals famous guest stars and more for the upcoming season

The Simpsons’ Matt Groening, Yeardley Smith and others tease season 34.

September 10, 2022

The Simpsons is ready to begin its 34th season on television. An impressive feat for any series. At this year’s D23 Expo, the animated comedy hosted a panel where the creatives talked about the process and what fans can expect in the future.

The upcoming season will premiere on September 25. The first episode is entitled “Habeas Tortoise” where Homer discovers his favorite animal in the zoo goes missing. He thinks it’s all a conspiracy and pretty soon he meets all these different people online who share his belief and they all go down a rabbit hole with outlandish predictions. It is inspired by the documentary Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.

One of the highlights of The Simpsons every year is the Halloween episode. This year, we’re actually receiving two. The first is the traditional three tale anthology, with one of the stories being a take on the anime Death Note complete with a different artistic style. It was also teased that one of the installments will be packed with tons of Easter eggs from the classic years. The second Halloween special will be an It parody with Krusty the Clown as Pennywise.

They also plan to dive deeper into their vast array of secondary characters. Michael Price writes an episode featuring Kirk Van Houten. In addition, there is an episode on Carl Carlson looking into the roots of his biological family. PBS personality from Finding Your Roots, Henry Louis Gates Jr. will guest star.

Speaking of guest stars, the new season of The Simpsons has many. Albert Brooks, who has appeared in multiple episodes, will return. In an episode where Homer is flying through the windshield of his car, he hallucinates one of Maggie’s elf dolls talking to him. She will be voiced by singing superstar Lizzo. She’ll also sing a song cowritten by Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords.

Other interesting notes include discussing Matt Groening’s musical days in the super group Rock Bottom Remainders along with accomplished authors Stephen King, Amy Tan, and Sam Barry amongst others. To end the panel, for the first time, Homer Simpson took questions from the audience. It was a prerecorded segment with plants in the audience, who are actually the show’s writers. It included some good corporate synergy with a cameo from Winnie the Pooh and Homer revealing a Marvel style Simpsons Movie Cinematic Universe.