Disney Unlocking ‘The Simpsons’ for Fortnite Games Developers

D’oh! Homer, Marge, Bart and the rest of “The Simpsons” cast of characters are set to run riot in a slew of new battles across Epic Games’ Fortnite under a new pact.

Disney and Epic Games announced that “The Simpsons” is joining Fortnite’s IP Partner Program, giving third-party developers the tools to create “fully authentic” games using the animated franchise’s characters and settings for the first time.

The companies announced the new partnership for “The Simpsons” Wednesday at Epic’s Unreal Fest Chicago 2026 developers conference. The Simpsons game-development tools for Fortnite will be available later this year; the companies declined to share details on revenue-sharing programs for participating developers.

“I can’t wait to see what the Fortnite superfans and ‘The Simpsons’ superfans come up with!” said Matt Selman, executive producer and showrunner of “The Simpsons.”

It’s the latest initiative to come out of Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic, announced in February 2024. And “The Simpsons” have dropped into the Fortnite universe before: Disney and Epic in November 2025 launched a month-long battle royale season with “The Simpsons” featuring the 80-player Springfield Island in the online game. According to Disney, the Simpsons battle royale season reached 80 million unique players with a cumulative 750 million hours played.

Meanwhile, Disney and Epic have also brought Star Wars intellectual property to Fortnite developers, with an official toolkit for them to publish their own custom Star Wars experiences. Nearly 8 million players engaged with the third-party Star Wars games in Fortnite within the first 72 hours. Within a week of launch, FOAD’s “Droid Tycoon” became the second most-played game in Fortnite during the BB-8 Event, which ran May 9-10, 2026.

Sean Shoptaw, executive VP of Disney Games and Digital Entertainment, said the Mouse House partnered with Epic “to build a Disney social entertainment universe, and a big part of our vision is building an environment where creators can work with our incredible IP and Epic’s world class suite of developer tools to create great content.”

The Star Wars developers kit “was a validating first step, now after the very successful Simpsons takeover of Fortnite, we’re bringing these iconic characters to UEFN,” Shoptaw continued, referring to the Unreal Editor for Fortnite creative tool. “We’re excited to continue this journey with Epic and their great creator community and look forward to sharing more about this ambitious universe in the months ahead.”

“Together with Disney, we’ve seen what happens when beloved franchises are put in the hands of Fortnite creators,” said Adam Sussman, president of Epic Games. “Players respond when their favorite characters and stories are handled with care. Creators will be able to use ‘The Simpsons’ toolkit, built with 20 Century Studios and Gracie Films, to make games that deeply engage fans.”

Ray Gresko, senior VP and head of product and development at Disney Digital Entertainment, said: “‘The Simpsons’ has been making people laugh for over 35 years — parents grew up with it; their kids are discovering it now. That kind of staying power is rare. What we found with the Star Wars IP toolkit is that when you hand developers the assets — the characters, the worlds, the visual language — their passion for the content comes through in the surprising, creative, and engaging experiences they make. We wanted to see what that looks like with Springfield and we can’t wait to see what creators do with it.”

Other collabs between Disney and Epic have included the Star Wars-themed “Galactic Battle,” billed as the game’s “most expansive experience” set within the Star Wars universe, and the Disneyland Game Rush virtual installation, a Fortnite Creative island.