Comic-Con 2016: Family Guy panel talks possible movie, Star Wars

During Family Guy’s hilarious panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, the cast and producers — including Rich Appel, Alec Sulkin, Mike Henry, Alex Borstein, Steve Callaghan — were asked for an update on a possible Family Guy movie, which has never been outright confirmed but which fans have craved for years.

“I think it’s always talked about,” said producer Sulkin. “There are no specific plans for a movie right now but it is something that’s on Seth’s mind. If I were a gambling man, I’d say within the next five years, probably there’ll be something.”

Producer Appel then adde: “And I can tell you, he is a gambling man.”

“I put a lot of money on this,” joked Sulkin.

Another fan asked whether the show had any plans to follow up its Star Wars trilogy with a parody of The Force Awakens. “No,” said Sulkin. “The truth of the matter is that, first of all, I think that we liked the first three and by the time we were done with the third one I think we were all ready to kill ourselves. But the new regime at Star Wars/Disney is, I would say, a little more difficult to deal with. I think before, we were just dealing with Lucasfilm, and Seth [MacFarlane] had a good relationship with them. And not that Seth has a bad relationship with Disney. I just think they’re a little more rigid, legally.”

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Appel added: “And I think they’re more careful now that they’re rolling out new movies. When Family Guy did them, they were beloved iconic films from many years before. But I think right now, they’re rolling out the new group of them and that’s where the intention should be.”

Another fan asked if they would ever do a Lord of the Rings tribute with, specifically, Herbert as Gandalf and Meg as Gollum. “We did think about that,” said Sulkin. “But we feel like Star Wars kind of relates to everyone but Lord of the Rings is a little more nerd-centric, whereas Star Wars kind of hits everyone. We’re all nerds, but I think we figured that wouldn’t be quite as wide-reaching as Star Wars would. But that’s excellent casting.”

The rest of the panel also included teases about upcoming episodes for the show’s forthcoming season 15. Among the reveal of new guest stars, the panel teased season episodes where Peter becomes an Uber driver; Quagmire discovers Tinder; and a standalone episode called “High School English,” which will explore the Griffins’ versions of three commonly-read high school English class stories (The Great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men).

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