Apu Nahasapeemapetilon spoke on The Simpsons for the first time since 2017, returning in Sunday's Fox episode "Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening," now voiced by Sunil Malhotra, according to CBC News.

The Kwik-E-Mart owner had been seen in the background for years but never heard, after criticism that the character reinforced racial stereotypes. Multiple outlets report the comeback was kept a closely guarded secret until the episode aired.

The episode plays the return as pure Simpsons horror. A masked figure in a "Daft Monk" costume — a play on Daft Punk, per the BBC — is accidentally killed over and over by Springfield residents before unmasking himself as Apu at City Hall.

"I am the man you left for dead. I am the one you pretended never existed," he declares. Polygon reports he recounts landing on an "Island of Forgotten Garbage" alongside discarded characters, before Marge apologizes on the town's behalf and Homer admits, "We took you for granted."

Malhotra tells Variety, as quoted by the BBC and Radio Times, that when his agent called about a Simpsons audition, "the idea actually made my stomach sink." He wondered whether the writers' room had changed and whether Apu could return in a way that acknowledged past mistakes.

After talks with showrunner Matt Selman and co-executive producer Cesar Mazariegos, he called it a "deeply collaborative experience" and wrote on Instagram that bringing Apu back "feels like a reclamation. It truly is his homecoming."

The controversy traces to Hari Kondabolu's 2017 documentary "The Problem with Apu," which examined the stereotypes bound up in a South Asian character voiced for decades by white actor Hank Azaria.

CBC News notes Azaria voiced the role for 27 years, stepped down in 2020, and later said on the Armchair Expert podcast that he felt he needed to "personally apologise" to Indian people.

Apu's wife Manjula also returned with a new voice: Janina Gavankar of "The Morning Show," taking over from white actors Jan Hooks and Tress MacNeille, per the New York Daily News.

The recasting fits a broader shift the show announced in June 2020, which CBC notes saw Alex Désert become Carl Carlson and Kevin Michael Richardson take over Dr. Julius Hibbert.

Executive producer Matt Selman told Variety, as quoted by several outlets, that the Nahasapeemapetilon family will now appear — and be heard — more often: "We love this character, and wanted to bring him back in a smart, Simpsons-y way that allowed him to evolve."

Reaction online has been mixed, with CBC reporting some fans celebrating the homecoming while others questioned the recasting or the show's continued relevance. A peek of the Daft Monk costume under the Kwik-E-Mart register hints the story is not fully settled.