‘Simpsons’ EP Clarifies Marge Simpson’s Fate After Shocking Death
Marge Simpson is officially back from the dead.
Several months after The Simpsons shocked fans by killing off the long-running animated comedy’s beloved matriarch during a flash-forward, the character made her highly anticipated return to the Fox series on the season 37 premiere.
The Sept. 28 episode saw Marge attempting to connect with Lisa Simpson by showing her daughter her favorite old school TV series Keagan’s Pond, a Dawson’s Creek-style teen drama. The trip down memory lane inspired Marge to unpack and dust off her old ’90s clothes, which Lisa used to give her wardrobe a trendy retro update.
At school, Lisa quickly became recognized as Springfield Elementary’s most stylish student and she was even taken in by a group of popular fashionista classmates.
But after the clique concocted a plan to steal vintage clothes from all the moms in Springfield, Lisa realized her new friends were bad news. Thankfully, Marge swooped in to save Lisa from the illegal activities, bringing the mother-daughter duo ever closer than before.
As regretful Lisa told her mom, “I’m so sorry mom. You just wanted to bond with me and I ruined it. I’m such a terrible daughter.”
And although Lisa was grounded for her misbehavior, it ultimately proved to be a teachable moment for the twosome.
As Marge assured Lisa, quoting a line from Keagan’s Pond, “Remember: I’m with you for the long haul. As long as there’s a pond and a ladder, I’ll be there.”
FOX
Marge’s heartwarming homecoming was surely a relief to viewers who panicked over the character’s death in the season 36 finale.
In the episode “Estranger Things,” which aired May 18, Marge’s worst fear came true when her eldest kids Bart and Lisa grew apart and the matriarch (voiced by Julie Kavner) envisioned the family’s future, during which they eventually reunite to care for an aging Homer, delighting Marge, who watched from heaven.
After Marge’s shocking fate was revealed, the show’s executive producer Matt Selman did some damage control by assuring fans that she wasn’t gone for good.
FOX
“Obviously since The Simpsons future episodes are all speculative fantasies, they’re all different every time,” Selman told Variety in an interview published June 26. “Marge will probably never be dead ever again. The only place Marge is dead is in one future episode that aired six weeks ago.”
However, the public outcry was actually encouraging to Selman.
“I guess this speaks to the fact that people care about Marge,” he added. “At the end of the day, it’s probably good for business even when these ridiculous, misleading stories go viral!”
The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox. In the meantime, keep reading for real-life actors who made shocking exits from their hit TV shows.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Mehcad Brooks, Law & Order
Mehcad Brooks shocked fans in 2025 when it was revealed he was leaving the NBC crime drama ahead of season 25.
Brooks, who joined the show in 2022, portrayed Detective Jalen Shaw for three seasons.
Bravo
Jax Taylor, The Valley
Jax Taylor announced he will not be returning to The Valley for season three amid growing concern from fans about his behavior during the show’s second season.
“Right now, my focus needs to be on my sobriety, my mental health, and coparenting,” the Bravo star—who is embroiled in a nasty divorce from estranged wife Brittany Cartwright—shared in July 2025. “Taking this time is necessary for me to become the best version of myself—especially for our son, Cruz.”
Mike Coppola/NBC via Getty Images
Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim & Devon Walker, Saturday Night Live
The Saturday Night Live stars all announced within days of each other that they would not be returning for the sketch comedy series’ 51st season.
Longfellow and Walker each spent three seasons on SNL while Wakim exited after just one season.
Todd Williamson/NBC
Heidi Gardner & Ego Nwodim, Saturday Night Live
Weeks after Longfellow, Walker and Wakim left SNL, longtime fan-favorites Gardner and Nwodim also confirmed they would not be returning for season 51 after eight and seven seasons, respectively.
Disney/Bahareh Ritter
Sofia Mattsson, General Hospital
Sofia Mattsson exited the long-running soap opera in summer 2025 after seven years playing Sasha Gilmore. Her character left Port Charles for Paris.
HBO Max/Warrick Page
Tracy Ifeachor, The Pitt
The Pitt star Tracy Ifeachor walked away from the hit HBO Max series after the medical drama’s breakout first season.
“It was an absolute privilege to play Dr. Heather Collins in such a groundbreaking season and piece,” the actress posted on Instagram July 10. “Thank you to everyone who has watched & supported Season 1 & shared their stories with me.”
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
While fans maybe should have been aware that the days were numbered for Pedro Pascal‘s Joel Miller, considering his April 2025 death was quite similar to how it unfolded in The Last of Us Part II, the 2020 video game season two of The Last of Us is based on, the moment his character was brutally impaled still stunned.
Pascal, meanwhile, who also died onscreen in Game of Thrones and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, took his game over status in stride. “I get killed a lot,” he joked to Entertainment Weekly. “I like to die.”
Disney/Christopher Willard
Peter Krause, 9-1-1
After what he dubbed “one wild adventure,” Peter Krause officially extinguished his role as 9-1-1‘s Los Angeles Fire Department captain Bobby Nash on an April 2025 episode of the procedural drama.
“Bobby Nash was written in sacrifice, and he was built for this,” Krause wrote in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “First responders risk their lives on the job so that others can see another day. His story arc honors them.”
Killing off the somewhat tormented, but beloved, firefighter was certainly a hot topic, showrunner Tim Minear acknowledged to Variety, “but after eight years, it just felt like, if we have any hope of creating stories going forward that have actual stakes, then someone’s got to die.”
Clifton Prescod/Bravo
Paige DeSorbo, Summer House
Summer just got a little less fun.
Paige DeSorbo announced in June 2025 that she was walking away from the Bravo series after seven seasons.
“You’ve seen me grow up over these last 7 summers. I’ll always be grateful for the memories, the community, and the opportunities this wild ride has brought me,” the Giggly Squad podcast cohost shared with fans on Instagram. “But like all good things (and some bad decisions), it’s time for this chapter to close.”
Netflix
Camille Razat, Emily in Paris
The French actress confirmed she would not return for the hit Netflix series’ fifth season in April 2025.
“After an incredible journey, I’ve made the decision to step away from Emily in Paris,” she wrote in an April 23 Instagram post, alongside pictures of her and her former castmates on set. “It has been a truly wonderful experience, one filled with growth, creativity, and unforgettable memories.”
Katrina Marcinowski/HBO Max
Reneé Rapp, The Sex Lives of College Girls
Ahead of The Sex Lives of College Girls‘ third season, Reneé Rapp announced she would be leaving the Max series.
“College Girls moved me out to LA and introduced me to some of my favorite people,” she wrote on social media in July 2023. “2 and a half years later—it’s given me y’all and this community.”
The show’s co-creator Mindy Kaling also confirmed Rapp’s exit. “We love @reneerapp so much and of course will be so sad to say goodbye to Leighton Murray!” Kaling wrote on her Instagram Stories before referencing Rapp’s thriving music career. “We can’t wait to see our friend on tour!!”
Paramount Network
Kevin Costner, Yellowstone
More than a year after Kevin Costner was rumored to have unexpectedly walked away from the hit Paramount drama after four and a half seasons, he confirmed in June 2024 that he will not return to finish out the series’ fifth and final season.
ABC
Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy
After 19 years as Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo scrubbed in for the last time as a series regular on the ABC drama in February 2023.
“I gotta mix it up a little bit,” Pompeo explained on The Drew Barrymore Show in December 2022, though she has already returned for a May guest appearance and continues narrating the series. “I’m 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs. I gotta do something new. You can’t do The New York Times crossword puzzle every single day.”
Susie Allnutt/Netflix
Henry Cavill, The Witcher
Batman vs. Superman star Henry Cavill revealed he would be stepping away from the Netflix fantasy drama after its third season—with the announcement that Liam Hemsworth will assume the role of Geralt for season four, and potentially beyond.
“My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures,” Cavill wrote on Instagram in October 2022. “Alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4.”
Matt Dinerstein/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Jesse Lee Soffer, Chicago P.D.
Original castmember Jesse Lee Soffer turned in his badge in 2022, saying goodbye to his beloved character Detective Jay Halstead role after 10 seasons.
“To create this hour drama week after week has been a labor of love by everyone who touches the show,” Soffer said in a statement after his final appearance in the NBC procedural’s Oct. 5 episode. “I will always be proud of my time as Det. Jay Halstead.”
JoJo Whilden/SHOWTIME
Damian Lewis, Billions
After five seasons, Damian Lewis departed Showtime’s Billions in Oct. 2021.
FOX via Getty Images
Emily VanCamp, The Resident
In Aug. 2021, it was reported that Emily VanCamp hung up her stethoscope for good as she had exited Fox’s The Resident.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ReedPOP
Madeleine Mantock, Charmed
After three seasons of feeling Charmed, Madeleine Mantock, who played eldest sister Macy on the CW reboot, announced her exit ahead of season four in 2021. Calling the role “an immense privilege,” in a statement, the actress shared how much she “enjoyed working with our fantastic producers, creatives, cast and crew.”
NBCU Photo Bank
Megan Boone, The Blacklist
Turns out Elizabeth Keen never will find out the truth about Raymond Reddington’s identity. Megan Boone chose to leave NBC’s The Blacklist at the end of season eight, and of course her character was killed off before she had the chance to read the letter that would have revealed everything. Boone marked the end of Liz’s journey in 2021 with an Instagram post in which she called the experience “a dream.”
LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX
Rege-Jean Page, Bridgerton
Season two of Bridgerton was down one duke. Rege-Jean Page became the breakout star of Netflix’s massive hit drama, and then broke hearts all over the place when it was announced that he would not be returning for the second season in 2021.
“I signed up to do a job and I did the job and then I did some other jobs,” he later explained to Vanity Fair. “That’s it. That’s the story. I wish it was more glamorous than that.”
Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
Ruby Rose, Batwoman
Ruby Rose made her debut in 2018’s Arrowverse crossover and then starred in one season as the titular Batwoman (a.k.a. Kate Kane) in the CW drama—making history as the first lesbian superhero to headline their own show, as Batwoman came out of the closet in a major TV moment—before announcing her exit just two days after the season one finale aired in 2020. The role was eventually replaced with Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, a new character set to take control of the Batcave in season two.
Later on in season two, Kate got a bit of a face swap and returned played by Wallis Day.
NBCU Photo Bank
America Ferrera, Superstore
America Ferrera decided to exit Superstore at the end of season five in 2020, leaving Cloud 9 without a manager and the show without a lead. She ended up appearing in the first two episodes of season six due to the pandemic, and then when season six was deemed the end, she returned for the series finale to give Amy and Jonah (Ben Feldman) the happy ending they deserved.
SYFY/NBCU Photo Bank
Jason Ralph, The Magicians
In the 2019 season four finale of the Syfy series, Jason Ralph‘s character Quentin completed his quest to save Eliot (Hale Appleman), but sacrificed himself in the process. While the show does feature dead characters—it’s called The Magicians after all—Ralph did not return for the fifth and final season.
CW
Emily Bett Rickards, Arrow
Ahead of the final season, Arrow‘s Emily Bett Rickards announced her exit in a poem of sorts.
“Felicity and I
are a very tight two
But after one through seven
we will be saying goodbye to you,” she wrote.
She did, however, return for a guest appearance in the show’s 2020 series finale.
AMC
Lauren Cohan, The Walking Dead
Lauren Cohan said see you later to The Walking Dead in 2018 following prolonged contract negotiations. She appeared in a handful of season nine episodes, but after a six-year time jump her character Maggie Greene was nowhere to be seen. Producers were hopeful she’d return in some capacity for season 10, and after her short-lived ABC series Whiskey Cavalier was canceled, they got their wish. Cohan made her grand return in this season’s 16th episode, which aired in October 2020.
AMC
Danai Gurira, The Walking Dead
Hot on the heels of Cohan and Andrew Lincoln bidding farewell to the zombie drama came Gurira’s exit. After joining the AMC series in season three as the katana-wielding Michonne, she made her last appearance in a season 10 episode, which aired in March 2020.
The CW
Nicollette Sheridan, Dynasty
A recurring player in season one and series regular in season two, Nicollette Sheridan starred as the iconic Alexis Carrington. She announced plans to exit the CW reboot ahead of season three in 2019 to spend time with her ailing mother.
Jace Downs/CBS via Getty Images
George Eads, MacGyver
George Eads exited the CBS remake in 2019, midway through season three. At the time, he expressed his desire to leave and spend more time with his family.
FOX Image Collection via Getty Images
Damon Wayans, Lethal Weapon
Fox’s Lethal Weapon is no stranger to cast exit drama. Clayne Crawford was fired from the series after the second season and his former TV partner Damon Wayans announced his plans to exit the hit drama after the 13-episode third season. “I’m going to be quitting the show in December after we finish the initial 13, so I really don’t know what they’re planning, but that’s what I’m planning,” he said in October 2018. “I’m a 58-year-old diabetic and I’m working 16-hour days… Murtaugh said, ‘too old for this.'”
Producers didn’t need to work on a replacement plan, though. The show was canceled at the end of season three.
Showtime
Cameron Monaghan, Shameless
Ian Gallagher went to the slammer. When Cameron Monaghan left Shameless during its ninth season, his character was locked up. In reality, Monaghan was ready to explore new projects after nine years on the show. But, in a true TV twist, he went ahead and signed on to return for season 10 anyway and was present and accounted for when the show returned for its 11th and final season in December 2020.
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