The Simpsons Season 34 - What We Know So Far

The 34th season of "The Simpsons" is almost upon us, with the iconic television series set to return in the coming weeks. And when fans peek ahead at the possibilities for this next chapter in Springfield, there are honestly a ton of things to look forward to.  

"I'm very excited about Season 34," showrunner Matt Selman told Deadline in an August 2022 interview. "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."

Season 33 of "The Simpsons" wrapped up in May 2022 and sadly saw some of the lowest ratings ever for the legendary cartoon program (via Showbiz 411). But the show still has a devoted following and some of the most recognizable content in show business, which has caused Fox to keep coming back to the Matt Groening well of creativity that's to be on full display in Season 34.

Season 34 of "The Simpsons" is currently slated to come out on September 25, 2022 (via Fox43). If it's the same length as previous seasons, fans can expect the latest chapter to run from September until late May 2023. It'll air Sunday nights on Fox. "It's probably the best 34th season of any show you've ever seen," joked Matt Selman in his interview with Deadline.

With "The Simpsons" already the titleholder for television's longest-running scripted series of all time, it begs the question of when Fox will finally pull the plug on Matt Groening's cartoon brainchild. The network picked up the show for Seasons 33 and 34 in March 2021, but has yet to announce plans for further seasons as of this writing. Rumors have swirled about a possible second "Simpsons" movie coming to fruition at some point, but showrunner Al Jean has said that the show's continued popularity has kept everyone's TV blinders on for the time being and prolonged the production process, along with the COVID-19 pandemic. "We're cursed by high ratings," he told NME in November 2021. "We're still on the air as a TV show and that takes up a lot of time."

As of right now, at least two big names have been announced for Season 34 — Melissa McCarthy and Simu Liu, with showrunner Matt Selman revealing his epic plans for the Hollywood stars during his chat with Deadline. "We have Simu Liu from Marvel's Shang-Chi in an upcoming show as Lisa's perfect future boyfriend," Selman said. "And then we have [a] huge guest part for iconic comedy legend Melissa McCarthy coming up. It's a really juicy, funny part where she plays a kid who's Homer's rival for love from Grandpa. [She] plays kind of a quirky kid who has Grandpa's love and Homer's like, 'Why does Grandpa like this kid? And why didn't he like me?' It's really emotional as well."

In seasons past, "The Simpsons" typically thrived on celebrity cameos and big guest spots. But it seems with the lack of stars being announced before Season 34 that the show may be relying more on its classic characters and original storytelling this go-around. This obviously includes Dan Castellaneta as Homer, Julie Kavner as Marge, Yeardley Smith as Lisa, and Nancy Cartwright as Bart and Maggie. Hank Azaria's return as Apu has also been teased, with creator Matt Groening telling USA Today in March 2021: "We've got plans for Apu, but we have to see if we can make the stories work." Either way, "The Simpsons" team promises to provide appearances of new characters and familiar faces throughout the new season, along with a number of fresh storylines.

Matt Selman has promised to deliver new and epic storylines for "The Simpsons" Season 34, including one that will "break one of the rules we've never broken before," as he told Variety in July 2022. "I'm 100% sure we've never broken it."

Selman and others involved with "The Simpsons" have kept many of its major plots and segments for Season 34 close to their vests in recent months, but they've also revealed exciting tidbits about it. For instance, Selman said in his interview with Deadline that the show will finally explain the secret behind all those freaky "Simpsons" predictions of future events. "It's a conceptual episode with lots of crazy stuff in it," Selman explained. "But it does an explanation of how 'The Simpsons' can predict the future."

Another big reveal for Season 34 was the announcement that there will now be two "Treehouse of Horror" episodes for Halloween this year instead of just one. One of the installments will be an anime parody of the Japanese manga series "Death Note," while the other will be a play on Stephen King's "It" — with Krusty as Pennywise, per Selman. He claims that there will be countless other stories that fans will likely love, including one where Krusty has a syndicated talk show modeled after "Ellen."