A Recent 'Simpsons' Episode Was Almost 'The Simpsons Movie 2'

After years of wondering whether we might ever see a Simpsons Movie sequel, it turns out we've already seen it. Sort of.

In the first episode of 2015, the family was whisked away to Rigel 7, the home planet of aliens Kang and Kodos, where Homer is almost eaten as a meal. Now Simpsons executive producer Al Jean reveals that storyline was previously considered as a sequel to 2007's The Simpsons movie.

So why didn't it get made as a film? Read Jean's explanation of the Simpsons Movie sequel idea after the jump – as well as his thoughts on the likelihood of an actual Simpsons Movie sequel happening. 

Jean offered up that juicy little tidbit in a conversation with EW. The story was originally written as the Season 24 finale, but Jean and exec producer James L. Brooks decided to sit on it to see if it could work as a film. Jean explained what they liked about the idea, and what made them decide not to use it in a movie:

Two of the allures were exploring the rules of the new world and the cinematic nature of doing something in space. But then we were worried that people might think it's an idea that's not canonical—it doesn't really happen, unlike all of other 560 episodes that really 'happened'—so the ultimate decision was to air it as an episode.

It just got to the point where if we were unsure about it as a movie, then it would be good to air the episode. And then if we do a movie, we'd just think of something else. So if you want to know what was thought of a possible Simpsons Movie 2, we just aired it—for free. You can see it for free!

Jean still hasn't ruled out the idea of making a Simpsons Movie 2 someday. "My guess is it's 50-50," he said when asked whether one might actually happen.

Our feeling is that the first movie was pretty successful and we don't want the second movie to be any less successful. And I'm not talking about financially only—I'm also talking about no one wants to do a movie where people think, 'Why did they do that? It wasn't necessary.'

There's also the issue of finding time to work on a movie, not to mention the difficulty of finding an idea that actually works. "To be honest, there's nothing that I'd say, 'This is what we were thinking we would do if we did a feature,'" he admitted.