Several news sites including Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone have made quoted The Simpsons EP Al Jean saying “We are doing this story for the same reason we do all others – we think it has a good emotional through-line,” he explained. “The story will be produced this year, though it may air in Season 26.”

This isn’t the first time a Springfieldian has been cut from The Simpsons. The list of past characters to never make a return are [taken from The Simpsons Wiki Page]:

• Uncle Hubert, died in the The Simpsons shorts episode “The Funeral”.
• Clancy Bouvier (1928-1977), in “Jazzy and the Pussycats” Marge says that he died shortly after she married Homer.
• Snowball I (1988-1990), (died after being hit by a car, being driven by Clovis Quimby. The death is first mentioned in “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” with Clovis Quimby being mentioned as the killer in “Treehouse of Horror III”.
• Orville Simpson , (seen in Heaven by Bart in “Bart Gets Hit by a Car”.
• Milton Haas, died from a hernia while carrying the crate of stolen Nazi paintings out of the German castle.
• Sheldon Skinner, Arnie Gumble, Iggy Wiggum, Etch Westgrin and Griff McDonald, killed during the 1979 Veterans Day float disaster.
• Soldier: eaten by an elephant during the Vietnam War despite Skinner’s warning in Skinner’s Sense of Snow.
• C. W. McAllister died on the Murderhorn mountain in 1928, presumably from altitude sickness as his oxygen was stolen. Abraham Simpson has taken a bite out of his arm. His body was only found in “King of the Hill”.
• Waylon Smithers, Sr., died of radiation poisoning. When he was younger Homer Simpson discovered his body, presumably a while after his death as it had quite substaintually decayed. Homer had flashbacks of the event when he was hypnotised in “The Blunder Years”. Mr. Burns later showed the Simpson family, as well as Chief Wiggum and Waylon Smither Jr., the footage of his death. Showing that he had died saving Springfield.
• Asa Glick, held a granade in his hand to long & was blown up.
• Johnny, killed by the Vietnamese as seen in a flashback in “I Love Lisa”.
• Child actor playing Alfalfa on Our Gang, beaten to death by Moe Szyslak as seen in a flashback in “Radioactive Man”.

Rolling Stone mentions the episode is in production this year but will not be aired until the 26 season of The Simpsons scheduled for next year. Al Jean teases Simpsons fans when saying in an interview “I’ll give a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won’t say who it is.”

With the most recent Emmy nominations of Kelsey Grammar [portraying Krusty the Clown’s former side-kick Sideshow Bob] in 2006 and Anne Hathaway [Playing as Princess Penelope in the episode “Once Upon a Time In Springfield” and as Jenny in the episode “The Good, The Sad and the Drugly”] in 2010 no one is safe from the Simpsons chopping block.

Season 11 of The Simpsons was the most notable death of Ned Flanders wife Maude, played by Maggie Roswell. there will no doubt be a grand demise in season 26 of the Simpsons.