The Simpsons finally releasing episode everyone’s been waiting for ‘since 1989’

The Simpsons has hinted at finally giving fans something they’ve been waiting 35 years in Season 36.

The new series of the beloved animated favourite returns to Fox this weekend and the first episode could shake the foundation of the show.

‘It’s the episode fans have waited for since 1989,’ teased the show’s official account on X alongside a trailer.

Titled Bart’s Birthday, the new series will see Marge and Homer’s eldest child mark his birthday in a show where none of the characters ever really age.

‘Bart celebrates the most shocking birthday party of his entire life — one that might just change everyone in Springfield forever,’ Fox teased in a press release.

Given the hype around the episode, fans are wondering what the bombshell will be, with some speculation we might finally see the characters age.

‘A canon change would be neat,’ wrote @Smellman426, while @awesometrent328 predicted: ‘He’s turning 11 finally? FINALLY?’

Fan @EvelynDarque added: ‘You mean something changes the status quo in a permanent way not in a family guy death of Brian way?’

Another fan, @nyc_adriana, insisted ‘it’s about time’, and without going into detail the Simpsons account replied: ‘The wait is almost over.’

Writer-producer Michael Price was similarly cryptic, as he insisted the first episode of the series is not to be missed.

He tweeted: ‘You do NOT want to miss this. A truly epic episode that people will be talking about on Monday. Written by @jessicajconrad, EP’d by @mattselman and Co-Run by yours truly.’

The trailer for Bart’s Birthday doesn’t give much away, just showing the spikey-haired boy outside Moe’s Tavern noticing that ‘something super weird is going on’.

In another scene, Homer – taking a page out of South Park’s book, perhaps – tells him: ‘I’m gonna take that miracle new diet drug! I’ll be skinny, but still have a huge head!’

The episode will also see WWE legend turned Hollywood megastar John Cena make his Simpsons debut, with the team revealing his character but keeping any details under wraps.

Meanwhile, the new series also promises two ‘terrifying Halloween episodes’.

In Treehouse of Horror XXXV, ‘giant monsters created by political rage threaten to tear the town apart, a Victorian Mr. Burns is jump-scared on Thanksgiving by the ghosts of his abused workers, and Homer bonds with a pair of extra-terrestrial jeans in an unforgettable stop-motion adventure that can only be called… Denim’.

In a bonus special – Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes – a tattooed man at a mysterious circus will send Lisa into ‘three strange stories from the innocent 1950s, the chilling retro-present, and a brutalist future where prestige TV rules the world’.