New 'Simpsons' movie in 'very, very early stages' of being made

A new Simpsons movie is in the "very early" stages of being made, a source close to the franchise has revealed.

The news comes 13 years after the last Simpsons movie was released in 2007 (in case your memory needs refreshing, it's the movie that gave us Spiderpig), and per Reuters, it raked in a whopping $527 million worldwide (the eighth highest-grossing movie of that year).

If you haven't seen it yet, or just want a refresher, this is the trailer for The Simpsons Movie: 

The exciting news was revealed by Al Jean, who has been a long time producer on the show - so much so that he actually worked on the last movie.

In an interview with Slash Film, he said that Disney was keen to do another movie featuring America's most-loved animated family, but fans of the franchise shouldn't get too excited about a potential return to the big screen yet.

When asked about whether or not there would be a new Simpsons movie, he said: "I would say yes although we're just in the very, very early stages. We would love to do one for Disney but it's not like it's happening next week or next year. At D23 Matt [Groening] said, 'I think it's gonna happen' and I agree with that. So I agree with that statement. I believe it will happen."

Check out the Simpsons' Game of Thrones introduction: 

He continued: "We would only do it if it was an idea that we thought deserved being made into another movie. We certainly don't need to have more Simpsons out there just for the money or to have additional material. We would do it if we thought it was a great story and we wanted to tell it."

Jean added that if a sequel to the 2007 movie becomes a reality, its plot won't be a followup to its predecessor which focused on EPA and pollution misadventures.

Meanwhile, on the subject of Disney, the Disney+ bosses recently confirmed when the second season of The Mandalorian will be released.