“The Simpsons” will be saying goodbye to a major character as the long-running animated show reaches another year. Executive producer Al Jean revealed that a character who is voiced by an Emmy Award-winning actor will die in season 25 or 26.

Jean recently said to reporters that the writers are “working on a script where a character will pass away.”

“We are doing this story for the same reason we do all others – we think it has a good emotional through line,” Jean explained the move to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “The story will be produced this year, though it may air in season 26.”

He refused to name the unfortunate character who will be written out of the show, only hinting that “the actor playing the character won an Emmy” for the role.

The clue narrows down the options, but not so much since the show already boasts several voiceover actors who have won multiple Emmys for their role.

Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson), Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson), Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson), Jackie Mason (Rabbi Jyman Krustofski), Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson), Marcia Wallace (Edna Krabappel), Hank Azaria (Apu Nahasapeemapetilon), Kelsey Grammer (Sideshow Bob), and even guest star Anne Hathaway (Princess Penelope) have all received accolades for their voiceover performance for their characters.

If Jean was referring to Azaria and Castellaneta, then the choices just got multiplied. Both actors won Emmys for playing multiple characters.

Aside from voicing Homer, the Simpson partriarch, Castellaneta also provided voices for Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, and Groundskeeper Willie among many others. Castellaneta, on the other hand, also voiced a bevy of other characters, including Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, and Carl Carlson.

This soon-to-be gone character isn’t the first to perish from the show. Homer’s mother, Mona, mobster Fat Tony, and Maude, the wife of Simpsons’ neighbour Ned Flanders, were also killed off.

Meanwhile, for a happier news, fans of both Matt Groening’s “The Simpsons” and Seth Macfarlane’s “The Family Guy” will soon see the two hit animated shows together in a crossover episode to be aired in 2014.

As announced in July, the “Family Guy” characters will be travelling to Springfield, where “The Simpsons” reside, and the two famous fictional families will meet.