Harry Shearer is leaving ‘The Simpsons’ and our hearts are broken
Bad news for Springfield, it looks like one of its residents might be moving out. The Simpsons long-term voice actor, Harry Shearer, has indicated that he’s not returning for future episodes. This breaks our heart, and leaves characters like Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns and Seymour Skinner kinda up in the air. What will happen to them without Shearer?
The Simpson‘s has already been renewed through the end of time (OK, it’s just been renewed for two more season as of right now, 27 and 28) and many of its other voice actors are already back to work. However, Shearer is not. According to some semi-cryptic tweets, he wants to go on to do other work away from Springfield. Completely understandable, considering he’s been with the show since the very beginning, all 26 seasons.
But what about his characters? What about Kent Brockman, Reverend Lovejoy, Dr. Hibbert, Lenny Leonard, Otto Mann, Rainier Wolfcastle, Dr. Marvin Monroe? He voices like a third of Springfield.
As The Simpson‘s show runner, and executive producer, Al Jean, tweeted out, the show must go on, and Shearer’s characters will be recast with new actors — they will not be killed off, don’t worry. Jean even joked that we shouldn’t expect a Yellow Wedding. I assume he’s referring to Game of Thrones and its colored weddings, where lots of people die. But now that I’m thinking about it, The Simpsons could most definitely pull off a Yellow Wedding spoof—not that I want them to!
This is bummer news especially coming from a long-time fan favorite. Maybe if Shearer doesn’t return for every episode, he could still pop in from time to time? Hopefully something can be worked out, because Mr. Burns won’t be the same without him. Not excellent.
