We All Love Marvel’s Multiverse… but ‘The Simpsons’ Have Already Done It Almost 30 Years Ago

As we have said in one of our old articles, the Multiverse is a concept of a larger fictional universe within which multiple alternative realities exist, often called “Earth,” with one primary, canon narrative setting. The creation of the Multiverse as a concept allowed for more diverse storytelling and enabled a constant expansion of fictional narratives.

While there are many Multiverses today, as many franchises have decided to construct their own version of the concept, the most popular and coherent one in the world of movies and TV series right now is Marvel’s Multiverse, which is part of the MCU.

Many believe that Marvel is the first franchise to create a meaningful Multiverse on the screen, but believe it or not, almost 30 years ago, the first ones to do it were The Simpsons. While we are aware that it was rudimentary, it is still worth noting which is what inspired this article!

Back on October 29, 1995, The Simpsons episode “Treehouse of Horror VI,” the sixth iteration of the series’ famous “Treehouse of Horror” mini-series, aired. It was an exceptional episode and is considered to be one of the best ones of the mini-series. It consisted of three segments:

1. “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores”
2. “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace”
3. “Homer³“

The “Homer³” segment is the most important one for us in this article, as it actually foreshadowed a concept that is now normal for major franchises – the Multiverse. The Simpsons Multiverse is a very different concept than the one we know now and we’re not even sure that we can properly define it in that aspect, but in this episode, we actually saw Homer enter a new dimension, which is enough to satisfy the criteria for a Multiverse.

As said, it was a rudimentary thing and approach, but The Simpsons actually foreshadowed the Multiverse 29 years ago, when it was an unimaginable concept in the world of fiction. The video of the segment is currently available on YouTube:

As you can see, Homer exits his own dimension and enters a 3D version of Earth, becoming a 3D version of himself as well. This was a revolutionary thing back then, and while the series ended up being inspired by the 1962 The Twilight Zone episode “Little Girl Lost,” it was originally set to include several different universes, all of which would have shown a different iteration of Homer, as Bill Oakley, who was Season 7’s showrunner, said:

The initial idea was that Homer was going to go through more dimensions. They’d have different styles, like a cutout paper dimension and a claymation dimension. But then we were like, ‘Let’s just parody the Twilight Zone episode beat-for-beat.

Source: SlashFilm

The Simpsons seemed to have predicted the future once again, eh?

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

Liked this article? Join us on Reddit for the latest Marvel & DC news!