Photo: Still
The Simpsons has spanned nearly three decades and began its animation in 1989. Now, in 2017, the creators want to celebrate reaching 600 episodes by recreating The Great Gatsby, only this time with a hip-hop style.
‘The Great Phatsby’ will focus on Mr Burns and his relationship with Jay G - a character not so subtly based on The Great Gatsby’s Jay Gatsby. Their destructive friendship will bring in the likes of RZA, Snoop Dogg and Common into the hip hop inspired episode.
Speaking about the episode to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Matt Selman said, “This was just going to be a regular episode but the table read went so well, in a fit of passion and excitement and ambition and excess, we decided to supersize it […] It’s kind of like a two-part rap album.”
Another star meant to feature in ‘The Great Phatsby’ is Empire’s Taraji P Henson. Empire’s music producer Jim Beanz is also contributing to the hour-long episode by producing some original hip hop tracks to accompany both parts.
Whilst the famous rappers will all have small cameos, the supersize episode will see Homer providing narration in a Nick Carraway style (also in The Great Gatsby).
Marge will be opening her own boutique store while daughter Lisa will be getting her hands on some dollar with her rich partner.
Comedian Keegan-Michael Key will also be lending his voice for the hip hop homage episode, playing a washed up rapper named Jazzy James who is stuck selling candles. Along with Taraji P. Henson, they will both plot to get revenge on the sly Jay G, who befriends Mr Burns.
This two-part episode will be the first chronological to appear across The Simpsons’ 28 seasons, with only one other double episode spread across season 6 and 7.
The supersize episode will be a landmark for The Simpsons creators. Producer Matt Selman added, “We haven;t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip hop and rap culture so we just went for it.”
‘The Great Phatsby’ part one airs this Sunday (15 Jan) on FOX. We’ll update with UK times shortly.
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