Simpsons Short Starring Loki Arrives On Disney+ July 9

About two months ago, we suddenly got a Simpsons short on Disney+ themed around Star Wars. “The Force Awakens From Its Nap” debuted on May the 4th, Star Wars Day, and showrunner Al Jean would explain its origin a couple days later. It seems after Playdate With Destiny, a Maggie short meant for theaters, was kicked onto Disney+ due to the COVID shutdown, the move inspired the Simpsons staff to start making shorts just for the streaming channel.

And if they were going to do that, they were going to take inspiration from the other properties on Disney+…which meant Star Wars first, and now Marvel. Another short has been announced, titled “The Good, The Bart and the Loki,” and it’s not hard to guess the target this time.

For reference, the original:

Mostly the same poses, but a lot of roles have been shuffled around.

The plot of this one is that Loki has been banished from Asgard — again — and sent to Springfield as penance. He’s unlikely to learn his lesson, though, once El Barto finds him and teaches the Trickster God the art of pranking in the mortal realm.

Despite this short landing at the same time as the Loki TV series (likely intentional timing), don’t look for any crossover elements or even any similarities. The Simpsons writing staff worked without knowledge of the events in the Loki show, and the show itself has proven impossible to predict. The Loki you get here will be the “proper timeline” version of true villainy, not a partially-reformed variant.

It’s unknown how long this new short has been in the works, but “The Force Awakens From Its Nap” went from script to color in just three months. That’s an unusual time crunch for a Simpsons product, but not unprecedented. For an interesting story, pop in the Season 2 DVD and listen to Brad Bird describe how he made the “Bartman” music video under the same time constraints with 1990 technology. It’s quite a tale.

“The Good, The Bart And The Loki” teleports into Disney+ July 9.