The Simpsons has officially announced that long time voice actor Pamela Hayden will be officially retiring from the long running animated sitcom, and those behind the series will be recasting her roles as Milhouse, Jimbo Jones, and more for future episodes. Hayden has been a part of the long running franchise since even before it officially began (making her debut as the voice of Milhouse in a few Butterfinger commercials before The Simpsons began its full run in 1989), and Hayden has announced that her final episode of the series will be coming with Season 36’s next episode airing later this weekend.
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As additionally reported by Deadline, The Simpsons is now in the process of recasting her characters. It’s yet to be announced how this will be handled as whether or not they will get one new voice actor to handle Hayden’s various roles, or add more actors to take on different characters, but the process has begun. With Hayden’s final performance being in the upcoming Season 36 episode, “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes,” it’s also yet to be revealed how her characters will be portrayed for the rest of the season as well.
Pamela Hayden Retires From The Simpsons After 35 Years
Pamela Hayden is arguably one of the most important voice actors within the larger The Simpsons cast outside of the main family. Not only did she provide the voice of Milhouse up to Season 36 of the series, but she’s also portrayed characters like the Springfield Elementary bully Jimbo Jones, Lisa’s on again off again friend Janey, Ned Flanders’ son Rod, and many other smaller characters. But it’s her time as Bart’s best friend Milhouse that fans will fondly remember the most. As she prepares to retire from her time in the series, Hayden shared an emotional statement about her impending goodbye.
“The time has come for me to hang up my microphone, but how do I say goodbye to The Simpsons?……not easily,” Hayden stated. “It’s been an honor and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show, and to give voice to Milhouse and Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey, Malibu Stacy, and many others.” And now that her time in these roles is done. new voices will be coming in to bring these classic characters to life in future episodes.
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How Will The Simpsons Handle This Change?
While those behind the creative scenes at The Simpsons don’t have any plans to change out its core cast any time soon (at least as recently stated by current showrunner Matt Selman), the series has had experience with changing out its voice actors when needed. It really depends on the reason, however, as while some classic characters had been retired following their actor’s passing such as Phil Hartman favorites like Lionel Hutz and Marcia Wallace’s Edna Krabappel, there have been occasions where roles have been outright recast.
Following Russi Taylor’s passing in 2019, her roles for Sherri, Terri, Martin Prince, and more have since been recast with voice actors such as Grey DeLisle. There are also the cases of characters being recast due to race such as Kevin Michael Richardson taking over the role of Dr. Julius Hibbert from Harry Shearer beginning in 2021. The new voices were slotted into the long running series perfectly without any issues, and that is very likely going to be the same case here. Milhouse is such a key character that retiring him was likely never on the board in the first place, but now it’s been confirmed that he’ll be sticking around in the future.