After it looked all but official in May this year that he had departed the series, Harry Shearer has actually re-signed with The Simpsons in a four season deal which winds up banking the actor over $300,000 per episode. The Simpsons returns for it’s 27th season on September 27.
Shearer had expressed that he wanted to remain free creatively, but it looks like he was swayed after all and has landed the same deal as the rest of the core voice-cast including Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Hank Azaria. The deal is for four more seasons and Fox has already guaranteed a 27th and 28th season of TV’s longest running series.
Although production had already begun on season 27, none of Shearer’s characters had been re-cast since they already had enough leftover episodes from the prior season to insert into the new one in order to avoid that scenario.
Fans can rest easy now knowing that Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Seymour Skinner, Smithers, Otto, Kent Brockman and many more will still have that Shearer charm behind them at least for a few more years and likely until the series eventually concludes it’s historical run.
“Said it at the beginning, even truer at the end: thanks to Simpsons fans for your support; wouldn’t have happened w/out you!” Shearer via Twitter.