Family Guy will finally address Stewie's sexuality in new episode

The episode will 'delve into all sorts of things you would think would come up in a therapy session with a boy like Stewie'

Stewie’s ambiguous sexual orientation has been the focus of many a Family Guy joke, though the matter will finally be directly tackled in a new episode.

The youngest Griffin is set to attend therapy, guided by the calming voice of Ian McKellen, with executive producer Rich Appel explaining to TVLine that the episode will “delve into all sorts of things you would think would come up in a therapy session with a boy like Stewie”, including the “question of sexuality”.

The character’s expressed an interest in male and female characters over the course of Family Guy‘s 300 episodes; in 2009, creator Seth MacFarlane told Playboy that (via New York Daily News), before the show’s cancellation in 2002, he’d written a coming-out episode for Stewie.

“It had to do with the harassment he took from other kids at school,” MacFarlane said. “He ends up going back in time to prevent a passage in Leviticus from being written: ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is an abomination.’”

“But we decided it’s better to keep it vague, which makes more sense because he’s a 1-year-old. Ultimately, Stewie will be gay or a very unhappy repressed heterosexual. It also explains why he’s so hellbent on killing [his mother, Lois] and taking over the world: He has a lot of aggression, which comes from confusion and uncertainty about his orientation.”

Appel added: “It’s a wonderful episode, and Seth’s performance is spectacular.” The episode, which Appel says will be shown with limited commercial interruptions, airs next month. Family Guy returns Sunday 11 March on Fox, 9/8c.

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