The Simpsons Almost Did The Multiverse Decades Before The Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Nowadays, the concept of the multiverse has become part of the pop culture lexicon, mostly due to Marvel and its attempts to usher in the age of multiversal storytelling with its superhero movies (although it' worth noting that superhero movies didn't invent this concept, it's been around for a while). The process really began Sony and Marvel's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" back in 2018, then picked up with 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home," before Marvel Studios itself picked up the baton and ran with it for 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" — a movie that tried to distinguish between different timelines with distinct designs for each, but which ultimately felt like it didn't quite hit the mark.

Meanwhile, Marvels' rival, DC, also tried its hand at introducing audiences to the multiverse with some ill-fated projects such as the superheroic box office bomb that was "The Flash." Still, by the time "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" debuted in 2023, the concept of multiple universes that collide with one another was well-established.

In the case of Sony's "Spider-Verse" sequel, the studio managed to pull off what "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" couldn't. "Across the Spider-Verse" painted a vivid picture of the multiverse, or rather dozens of different vivid pictures. Alongside 3D modeling, timelines were illustrated using watercolor, collage, and Italian Renaissance-inspired aesthetics, making for distinct visual identities for each.

While "Across the Spider-Verse" currently stands as the best on-screen representation of the multiverse, interestingly enough, some 26 years prior to Spidey's multiversal exploits, "The Simpsons" almost pulled off a very similar feat with a 1997 "Treehouse of Horror" episode.

That time the Simpsons made Homer 3D

Not only has "The Simpsons" predicted all manner of real world events that actually came true, it has also pretty much done every storyline that you could possibly think of. Even as far back as 2002, "South Park" was poking fun at this very fact with its "Simpsons Already Did It" episode. But one thing which the long-running series didn't quite beat Marvel to was depicting the multiverse as a kaleidoscopic tapestry of visual design history — though that isn't to say the show didn't try.

"Treehouse of Horror VI" is one of the best installments in the "Simpsons" Halloween episode tradition, and is notable for being the first time the show used 3D modeling and live action footage in the now classic segment "Homer³." It also happens to be the episode of "The Simpsons" that prompted a real-life welfare check.

A parody of the 1962 "Twilight Zone" episode "Little Girl Lost," in which a girl accidentally travels to another dimension, "Homer³" sees Homer do the same, becoming a digital 3D version of himself in an alternate dimension. But the segment was originally going to introduce to pop culture the concept of a multiverse made up of various design languages all the way back in 1997.

Homer³ was almost the beginning of the multiverse

Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who served as showrunners on season 7 of "The Simpsons," spoke to Cracked about "Treehouse of Horror VI." While discussing "Homer³," they revealed that Homer was originally supposed to go through multiple dimensions with different aesthetics, much like the events of  "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" or "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." Oakley said:

"The initial idea was that Homer was going to go through more dimensions. They'd have different styles, like a cutout paper dimension and a claymation dimension. But then we were like, 'Let's just parody the Twilight Zone episode beat-for-beat.'"

Funnily enough, the cutout paper dimension sounds vaguely similar to the style used in "Across the Spider-Verse" to represent Spider Punk's universe. The character in Sony's movie took three years to animate, due in part to the fact animators used a detailed hand-cut collage style that emulated the look of punk zines and flyers. While I'm sure "The Simpsons" wasn't thinking along those lines, this does sound like another moment where the show would have done something way ahead of its time, had Oakley, Weinstein, and the writers pushed ahead with their multiple universe approach.