Anthony McCarten, who wrote The Theory of Everything recalls his lasting image of Hawking.
It's the cartoon comedy believed to have predicted Donald Trump's presidency, the Ebola crisis and Bengt Holmström winning the Nobel Prize.
Now fans believe The Simpsons may have hinted at a greater cosmological link between physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, almost two decades before Hawking would die on the day that his German counterpart was born.
The eerie link was uncovered this weekend as producers aired the 1999 episode - entitled They Saved Lisa's Brain - in which Hawking stars, as a tribute to his death on Wednesday 14 March.
The scene features Hawking - who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was 21 - performing in a rap called 'A Brief History Of Rhyme' - a play on his famous volume of work.
With turntables fixed to his wheelchair, his animated character is also kitted out with a gold chain, which features formula made famous by Einstein, E = mc2, Daily Mail reported.
Prediction? Fans have spotted that Stephen Hawking nods to Albert Einstein an episode of The Simpsons which aired in 1999, 19 years before the physicist would die. Photo / FOX
The reference was a direct nod to Einstein, which would become all the more pertinent 19 years on, when Hawking died on the day of Einstein's birth.
"Guess what?" one fan wrote on Twitter on Sunday night. "The Simpsons did it again!"
'"f you recognise the Emc^2... you know it was by Einstein who was born in March 14, WHICH is also the death of prof. Hawkings... the Simpsons did it again!"
Hawking's homage to Einstein may not have initially come as a surprise to most, because they are both among the greatest physicists of all time.
Yet on Wednesday, the day of Hawking's death marked 139 years since the birth of Einstein - who died in 1955 at the age of 76 - and this overlap between the two gifted minds was considered quite a coincidence among science fans.
Furthermore, the similarity between their birth and death dates is perhaps more pertinent than ever, owing to Hawking's belief that time is relative.
There were many other spooky coincidences with the date of Stephen Hawking's death.
Including the numerical date 3/14, which is significant because 3.14 are the first three digits of pi - a bedrock of geometry, and that the day was also the 300th death anniversary of Galileo Galilei.
Fans were particularly touched that Hawking's episode - which originally aired in 1999 - was put back out on Sunday night in the US, to remember him.
In the episode, Hawking saves Lisa from the power-hungry Springfield chapter of Mensa in a special wheelchair, complete with an Inspector Gadget–style retractable helicopter attachment and a spring-loaded boxing glove.
Comments flooded in beneath the tribute from the end credits, which was posted by The Simpsons' Executive Producer Matt Sellman on Sunday and simply said "In loving memory of Stephen Hawking".
In loving memory: The crossover was discovered on Sunday night, when producers aired the episode They Saved Lisa's Brain (pictured), in tribute to his death last week. Photo / FOX
Fans said it was "Nicely done," "Awesome and class," and "A lovely moment at the end of an exceptional episode. Bravo."
"Wasn't expecting this and it was nice to see," another said, while another added. "Amen. He will be missed".
Yet it's not the first time The Simpsons has seemingly predicted a significant event, years ahead of its time.
The Simpsons have also eerily predicted the Arab Spring, the FIFA soccer scandal, Greece's economic crisis and the discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle.
The show also showed Siegfried and Roy's tiger attack and Lady Gaga's Super Bowl performance long before they became real-life cultural events.
But one of the most famous, involve The Simpsons accurately predicting the fact that then-reality TV personality Donald Trump would become president of the United States
Back in 2000, the show made that prediction during the 'Bart to the Future' episode.
Trump was later referenced in another clip called "Trumptastic Voyage."
The iconic cartoon's creator, Matt Groening, said: "Trump was of course the most absurd placeholder joke name that we could think of at the time, and that's still true. It's beyond satire."
Dan Greaney, a writer for the Simpsons, also told The Hollywood Reporter that the clip had a dark message behind it.
He said: "It was a warning to America. That just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom.
"It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."
The cartoon foretold a Trump presidency in a surreal episode where Bart is given a window into the future - and found a country brought to its knees by financial mismanagement and a crime wave ushered in by Trump.
Crisis: The Simpsons also appeared to predict the Ebola crisis and Bengt Holmström winning the Nobel Prize. Photo / FOX
The episode's alternate universe reveals that Trump, who will be 84 in 2030, left the country in an impossible amount of debt, and reliant on foreign aid from Europe and China.
The most recent prediction involved an episode from almost 20 years ago that predicted Walt Disney Co. took over 21st Century Fox Inc.
The November 8, 1998 episode titled "When You Dish Upon a Star" of the show accurately predicted that one day Disney would take over Fox.
In February, it also came to light that The Simpsons predicted the USA would win curling gold and Sweden silver in Winter Olympics Curling, as part of an episode that first aired EIGHT years ago.
The prediction features in the "Boy meets Curl" episode, as Homer and Marge lead Team USA to victory.
