Disney+ has been and will be premiering many of its in-house properties on the platform sooner than expected, mostly due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and social distancing measures that have kept Disney's loyal fanbase at home. This week, they announced that the animated short, Playdate With Destiny, would begin streaming this Friday, for those who missed it in theaters at the start of Pixar's Onward. Playdate With Destiny -- a spoof on rom-coms in which Maggie Simpson makes a love connection at the playground -- marks the first real The Simpsons collaboration between Disney and Fox since the one acquired the other. Simpsons fans are sure to appreciate having access to it, but what they'd really appreciate would be a sequel to The Simpsons Movie.
Well, not a sequel exactly. Producer, Al Jean, has confirmed that, if such a project goes forward, the story will not pick up where The Simpsons Movie left off, and that's actually for the best. The original stands as one of the most successful attempts to take a popular series from the small to the big screen. It earned strong reviews and more than $500 million at the box office, and most importantly, it lived up to the expectations of its core audience. But, as do episodes of the TV series, it functions well as a contained story and socially-illuminating relic of its time. Though the Simpsons of 2007 tackled subjects like environmentalism, universal basic income and even a global crisis begun by an animal with an almost creepy amount of foresight, it still approached those topics from a worldview that was just beginning to (or didn't) take such issues seriously. Disney/Fox would be smart to leave it be and start fresh.
A Simpsons Movie 2 set in or around 2020, exclusively on Disney+, would be exactly the kind of content people will soon crave, and a brilliant business move for the new streaming service. The Simpsons has three enormous competitive advantages when compared to other intellectual properties: the family doesn't age and continuity doesn't matter, it could more easily be produced remotely and it's already notorious for its hot takes on current events plus its supposed ability to predict those in the future.
Because the Simpson family never grows up, the show has established that they exist both in and out of time. That seems like it goes without saying, but it means that not only will Bart and Lisa always be 10 and 8 years old, their past versions conveniently bear no relationship to the present. The Simpsons' audience has always accepted this, and the show is able to be wittier because of it. Writers have occasionally embraced running jokes, but that's not really the show's style. Instead, The Simpsons thrives on the one-off nature of each episode (or, in this case, movie). Just as fans willingly suspend their disbelief about the characters' ages, they're just as happy to suspend their disbelief about continuity problems. One salivates at the idea of what Matt Groening and company would do with the news of the day.
That's not to say another Simpsons Movie should necessarily concern itself with our current reality. To be clear, a Simpsons Movie 2 was in development prior to the coronavirus pandemic, but only in the earliest of stages. Producers indicated at D23 that the project was close to being greenlit, but that it would only happen if everyone involved approved of the central idea. The Simpsons already has a reputation for its comedic prophesy, and it's gotten attention for references that some have interpreted as being related to the pandemic. The fact that it's animated with its longstanding cast in place means the series can turn around its product a little more quickly and probably more remotely. If scale has anything to do with it, considering the massive social shifts of the past weeks and months, now is the perfect time for Disney/Fox to put out another supersized installment.
The Simpsons might not be of as much literal value as Star Wars or Marvel to Disney, but it's of considerable cultural value to fans who have stuck with it for 31 years, or who have discovered it along the way. A second Simpsons movie could be made with a lower budget by comparison, and releasing The Simpsons Movie 2 straight to Disney+ would likely encourage a new wave of subscribers to sign up for the service. As production has been halted on many of Disney's live-action series and films, The Simpsons, in a new full-length adventure, might be just the group to keep families turning to Disney+.