Disney have announced that a sequel to The Simpsons Movie is coming to cinemas in 2027.

It will have been 20 years since the iconic animated family were on the big screen by the time of the sequel’s release, with Disney subsidiary 20th Century Studios confirming the release date for the new movie will be July 23, 2027.

As noted by Variety, that date had been provisionally set aside in Disney’s future plans for a new Marvel project, but that film has now been removed from the schedules, meaning there will now be no entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe between Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027.

“Woohoo! The Simpsons are coming to theaters with an all-new movie on July 23, 2027!” the official Instagram page for 20th Century Studios posted this evening (September 29). The post shows a yellow hand grasping a pink donut with ‘2’ sprinkles, alongside a tagline: “Homer’s coming back for seconds”.

The Simpsons Movie was released in 2007 and was a major hit, earning over $500million at the global box office against a $75million budget. It saw the residents of Springfield being confined under a giant glass dome after Homer’s pet pig causes an environmental disaster.

A potential sequel has been discussed for many years – in 2015, executive producer Al Jean described it as a 50/50 possibility, while four years later, show creator Matt Groening said he was in “no doubt” that it would happen “one of these days”.

In 2022, Jean provided an update, saying he was keen to work on a sequel, but he was “cautious” about committing to the project due to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty of the box office.

In other Simpsons news, showrunner Matt Selman said the new season of the show would not be tackling contemporary US politics in the same way that South Park has been doing recently.

“It’s not our mission statement to respond to the crisis of the moment,” he said. “It’s more about a town of good-natured dum-dums dealing with a changing world, yet our characters never really change. The world changes around them.”

The opening episode of the 37th season of the legendary sitcom premiered on Fox on Sunday night (September 28), with this run set to include the show’s 800th episode.