Yes, Marge Simpson Died In 'The Simpsons' Season Finale—But She's Not Gone For Good

The Simpsons is an icon of animation that first appeared as shorts between bits on The Tracey Ullman Show, beginning on April 19, 1987. Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner, cast members from Ullman's eponymous sketch comedy show, were asked to lend their voices to keep costs down for the fledgling Fox television network.

In December of 1989, the dysfunctional family got their own show and quickly bolstered viewership for the first U.S.-based network to challenge the original three of ABC, CBS, and NBC.

And through thirty-eight years and thirty-six seasons on TV, the glue that held the Simpson family together has been blue-haired matriarch Marjorie "Marge" Jacqueline Bouvier Simpson.

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But, alas, the ties that bind the Simpson family together have come undone.

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Or have they?

After news spread that the season 36 finale, "Estranger Things," which aired May 18, included the death of Marge Simpson, even fans who hadn't tuned in for years mourned her passing. But they've still got years to wait before it actually happens—if it ever does.

Maggie has been a non-verbal baby for 38 years, so time works differently in Springfield.

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Eagle-eyed individuals who missed the episode noted the Simpson kids are all adults in publicity stills of them gathered around their mother's grave.

The season 36 finale featured another time skip episode, a flash-forward to Marge's death. The series, where the kids have never aged after 790 episodes, has used this device before.

The first future-focused episode was "Lisa's Wedding" in season 6. It gave viewers a grown up Lisa and Bart and a teenage Maggie—who still doesn't speak.

The episode proved so popular it was followed by "Bart to the Future" in season 12, "Future-Drama" in 16, "Holidays of Future Passed" in 23, "Days of Future Future" in 25, "Barthood" in 27, and "Mr. Lisa's Opus" in 29.

People—including the show's producers—were quick to reassure others that Marge wasn't going to stay dead—or wasn't dead yet.

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When asked if Marge's death was canon, The Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman told Variety:

"There is no canon. The Simpsons doesn’t even have canon!"

Canon in regard to works of fiction refers to "officially established and accepted events, characters, and storylines within that specific fictional universe."

In Star Wars canon, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are the separated-at-birth twin children of Anakin Skywalker, a.k.a. Darth Vader, and Padmé Amidala. Conversely, whatever was going on in 1978's made for TV Star Wars Holiday Special is considered outside of canon.

For The Simpsons, a claim that there's no canon is an exaggeration. Homer's job, Marge's sisters, the city they live in, and the characters that inhabit it are canon. But the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes established early on that some episodes occur entirely outside of canon.

And let's not forget: 790 episodes. Even if each episode was a single day in the lives of the family, Maggie should be at least a walking, talking 3-year-old, not a baby. Canon in fiction where the passage of time slips gets complicated.

Just look at the world of comic books where characters who fought Nazis during WWII are still in their prime over 80 years later and relationships, marriages, births, deaths, etc... are and are not canon depending on what era or universe you're in.

Selman explained:

"Obviously since the The Simpsons future episodes are all speculative fantasies, they’re all different every time."

"Marge will probably never be dead ever again. The only place Marge is dead is in one future episode that aired six weeks ago."

As for the rumors of her death spreading over a month after the episode aired, Selman said:

"Here’s my take: Websites need traffic, and headlines equal traffic. And then you can explain that the headline was misleading at the very end of the article."

"Every single media outlet that ran this story knew that in no way was Marge dead. They all knew it, but they ran the headline anyway."

But Selman did see the benefit of the attention.

"I guess this speaks to the fact that people care about Marge. At the end of the day, it’s probably good for business even when these ridiculous, misleading stories go viral!"

In April, Fox renewed The Simpsons from 20th TV Animation through at least season 40. So Marge and the whole family have still got a lot of living to do.

Now part of the House of Mouse, all 36 seasons of The Simpsons are available on Disney Plus and Hulu.