First reported by Empire on X, “The Everything App,” Simpsons creator Matt Groening may have let slip the existence of some upcoming return for The Simpsons: Hit & Run—though this was immediately disputed by another grandee of the Simpsons Industrial Complex.
“I think the original game is coming back in some form,” Groening said in response to a question about the series at a Simpsons panel discussion, part of the ongoing D23 Disney fan event. Current showrunner Matt Selman immediately poured cold water on the idea, declaring “Or not,” in response to Groening’s statement.
Groening seems to firmly operate in an “emperor emeritus” role when it comes to day-to-day operations of The Simpsons, and it’s perfectly plausible that his supposition was based on out-of-date information, and Selman, who’s more hands on with things, is correct.
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But I’m inclined to think this was a “It’s a secret—Ssshut uuuuuup“ sort of interaction. We’re living in a time of endless remakes and remasters—Spongebob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated from a few years ago feels like it rhymes with Hit & Run, for example. Most persuasive of all, Selman himself, who wrote the original game, said “never say never” about the possibility of the series coming back just this year.
Groening’s choice of words, “the original game is coming back in some form,” seems to preclude a sequel and imply a remake or remaster to my eye. But if it turns out he was talking about an art book or retrospective documentary or something, well that’d just be poor form on his part I think.
The reason for all the hubbub was a clever little cult classic of a tie-in game from 2003, a PS2-era, GTA-lite sort of deal where you drove or ran around Springfield getting up to hijinks. I never played it myself, but some of my friends swear by Hit & Run. I think, for a certain band of zoomers and late millennials, it was a way of getting in on the GTA craze if your parents wouldn’t let you touch the real deal, leading to lifelong loyalty and nostalgia. Jak 2 ticked that box for me.
