Family Guy SDCC2013 recap: A Griffin will be killed and we think we know who!

For the most part, a lot of what was said at Family Guy’s panel at San Diego Comic Con we knew…but when new executive producer Rich Appel took the stage and made one huge announcement, we did some digging. IF YOU DO NOT WANT POTENTIAL SPOILERS DO NOT CLICK.

I would say that 2013 has been a transition year for FOX and for Seth MacFarlane, however maybe we should have seen this from the beginning? Very quietly, Seth has methodically made moves to ensure the survival of his beloved animated franchises and as such Rich Appel’s rise has attributed to this. We reported on Rich’s transition from the now cancelled The Cleveland Show to Family Guy and at the time we weren’t sure what it meant. But, then as we got closer to San Diego Comic Con a bunch of huge stories came out the most notable being that The Simpsons will be coming to visit Quahog in an apparent cross over with the Griffins of Family Guy. This of course comes after we first reported that Cleveland Brown would indeed be moving back to Quahog to rejoin the cast of Family Guy.

Rich Appel would walk out on that San Diego Comic Con stage this past weekend and he would certainly confirm not only the return of Cleveland, but all of the Brown-Tubbs family which makes for a bunch of fun possibilities with Rallo, Junior, and others mixing with Stewie, Chris, and Meg.  We would also learn about a bunch of plot devices like Chris and Peter going to Vermont to get married, a bunch of confirmed guest stars like Adam Levine, Bryan Cranston, Liam Neeson, Jeff Daniels,  Ashton Kutcher, Conan O’Brien, Dennis Farina, & Tony Sirico, and Peter getting a vestigial twin. Then Rich talked about the Simpsons / Family Guy cross over but really only mentioned that the Family Guy staff was writing it and that we were maybe getting another chicken fight. We also will be getting some sort of episode inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales, but I don’t watch that show so who knows.  But, then something happened.

Evidently, this season one of the Griffins will be killed off and replaced. Let me say that again…one of the main cast Griffins will be killed off only to be replaced THIS season. But, do we already know who is going to be killed?? Well, if you recall we posted up a press release regarding the Simpsons/Family Guy cross over. In an excerpt from the press release we can see ALL of the Griffins are accounted for with story lines involving The Simpsons with the exception of one…see if you can catch it:

Peter (Seth MacFarlane) and the Griffins get out of dodge and end up in Springfield, where they are greeted by a friendly stranger named Homer Simpson (guest voice Dan Castellaneta), who welcomes his new “albino” friends with open arms. The families get along famously: Stewie (MacFarlane) becomes obsessed with Bart (guest voice Nancy Cartwright) and his old-fashioned pranks; Lisa (guest voice Yeardley Smith) takes Meg (Mila Kunis) under her wing and is determined to find something – anything – at which she excels; Marge (guest voice Julie Kavner) and Lois (Alex Borstein) ditch housework for a little bonding; and Peter and Homer fight over the best beer in town – Pawtucket vs Duff.   

Can you see it?? Which Griffin character is NOT in the press release?? Welp, how about Brian Griffin?? Now, since the Griffins are visiting Springfield it could be that the family just left Brian at home. But, its strange that Brian wouldn’t be included in one of the biggest cross over events of all time, right? We could be way off, but that’s as good of a guess as you are ever going to get.

In the meantime Family Guy returns this Fall with all new episodes and now there’s a trailer down below with a fun interview some of the crew did:

http://youtu.be/OZf2qrkAIQA

http://youtu.be/vqjT1_r8oeU