Apu Nahasapeemapetilon returned to‘The Simpsons’in Sunday’s episode“The Revengening,”his first appearance since October 2017. Voicing him now is Indian-American actor Sunil Malhotra, who took over from Hank Azaria after Azaria stepped down in 2020. Malhotra has said he initially hesitated to audition, explaining that the idea“made my stomach sink.”
The episode doesn’t sidestep the controversy. Apu confronts the Springfield residents who abandoned him, and they apologize to him on air — a moment widely read as the show addressing its own handling of the character. The controversy dates back to Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary‘The Problem with Apu,’which criticized Apu’s accent and the fact that a white actor voiced him for decades. The show later stopped casting white actors as nonwhite characters.
Reaction has been predictably split. Some fans say Apu always reminded them of their own immigrant families. Others argue the apology arrived far too late to mean much. Either way, a nine-year debate just got its closing chapter, or at least its first real conversation. What do you think — did‘The Simpsons’handle this the right way?
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