Matt Groening Hints at Simpsons Hit & Run Return, Showrunner Pushes Back

At a Simpsons panel held as part of Disney’s D23 fan event, series creator Matt Groening told the audience that he thinks “the original game is coming back in some form” when asked about The Simpsons: Hit & Run, the beloved 2003 open-world title. Current showrunner Matt Selman, sitting alongside him, immediately responded with a terse “Or not,” leaving fans and reporters to wonder which of the two actually knows what’s happening behind the scenes.

The Slip and the Shutdown

The exchange was first flagged by PC Gamer and quickly picked up across the gaming press. Groening’s phrasing, specifically “the original game,” is being read by many observers as pointing toward a remaster or remake rather than a sequel. Eurogamer noted that the comment appeared to be an accidental reveal, and the swiftness of Selman’s rebuttal only added fuel to that reading.

Groening has largely stepped back from the day-to-day running of The Simpsons in recent years, which raises a legitimate possibility that his information is simply out of date and Selman is the more reliable source here. That said, the counter-reading, that Selman’s pushback was a panicked attempt to walk back an unplanned announcement, is hard to dismiss entirely.

Why Selman’s Own Words Complicate the Denial

The situation is muddied further by the fact that Selman himself, who is credited as a writer on the original game, said “never say never” about a Hit & Run comeback earlier this year, according to PC Gamer. That statement sits awkwardly next to his sharp “Or not” at D23. Video Games Chronicle pointed out that the combination of Groening’s apparent slip and Selman’s unease makes the denial feel less than convincing.

GamesRadar also drew a comparison to SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, the 2020 remaster of another early-2000s licensed platformer that found a receptive audience among players who grew up with the original. Hit & Run occupies a similar nostalgic space for a generation of players who used the Springfield-set GTA-lite adventure as a workaround when the real Grand Theft Auto games were off-limits.

What Comes Next

No official announcement has been made by Fox, Disney, or any publisher, and neither Groening nor Selman has elaborated publicly since the panel. The gaming industry’s current appetite for remasters of cult-classic titles from the PS2 era makes a Hit & Run revival commercially plausible, but until someone with actual authority confirms it, this remains firmly in rumor territory. SaveGameVault will update this story if and when an official statement arrives.

Sources: PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Video Games Chronicle, GamesRadar