Charlie Day, Weird Al Yankovic & More Stars Join Mysterious ‘Gravity Falls’ Project

The Big Picture

• Gravity Falls
  creator Alex Hirsch’s recent mysterious online activity has sparked fan excitement and speculation.
• The promotion of Hirsch’s book,
  The Book of Bill
  , involved puzzles, codes, and celebrity appearances.
• Fans are eagerly deciphering codes on a website linked to the book, with a potential significant reveal on December 15, 2024.

What is happening right now in Gravity Falls? That is the big question that fans of the beloved classic series wish to know. For weeks, some sort of event seemed to be occurring, though fans (and this writer) weren’t quite sure what we were looking at. Is this a tease for a new season? A revival show? Is creator Alex Hirsch simply sharing extra information to help promote his latest book, The Book of Bill? What is the significance of the date December 15, 2024? These are the questions that fans have asked throughout the weekend, so let’s try to make some sense out of it.

The excitement began when it was revealed there had been talks between creator Alex Hirsch and Disney in June. This was followed up with the release of the bestselling book The Book of Bill, which is the story of Gravity Falls from the point of view of the villain, Bill Cipher. Hirsch, who wrote the book, used a series of promotional tactics full of codes and other ciphers that made the show so popular. Hirsch even created a fake Oregon Parks Department Twitter account following the event of a ranger named Gus Burnside who found the book, tried to destroy it, and then mysteriously went missing. It was the first book in the Gravity Falls series that was written for adults.

With The Book of Bill was the launch of the website This Is Not A Website Dot Com, a tie-in site for the book that could be accessed with ciphers found in the pages. It displayed a mysterious computer on a desk where passwords could be entered. However, over the course of several weeks, the website changed. Gravity Falls fans know these things often lead to some sort of reveal or fan event. These were common during the show’s run. This Is Not A Website Dot Com featured a countdown until July 30, 2024, when it went down for “maintenance” so the character Soos (voiced by Hirsch) could fix it. It also began a count-up, which, during this time, clicking on Soos would get random phrases. However, click on Soos enough, and fans found him possessed by Bill Cipher, speaking in a code only found in The Book of Bill.

Celebrities Revealed to Help Promote New Gravity Falls Content

The website was “fixed” on August 9, 2024, the first day of D23 Expo, also when the count-up ended. This caused a stir among fans, wondering if there would be some sort of announcement at the big event. This Is Not A Website Dot Com again displayed the mysterious computer where fans could try to input codes that would reveal new content. These revealed even more lore about Bill Cipher and hinted that he might not be as defeated as it seems. Several celebrities joined the fun, such as the code “CONSPIRACY” revealing a video of actor Charlie Day responding to Soos and the count-up clock. The code “WEIRD” displayed a video of Weird Al Yankovic playing “Normal Al,” who is trapped in the computer by Bill Cipher. Even YouTuber MatPat participated in the event with a video to fans saying he would not help fans this time.

However, it’s Jason Ritter who has thrown the most fuel on the proverbial fire. The voice actor who played Dipper Pines in the series has an ongoing Twitter thread that is still being added to at the time of this writing. The thread began on July 30 when This Is Not A Website Dot Com went down for its “maintenance” with Soos. At first, the Twitter thread appeared normal, with the actor participating in trying codes on the site while sharing gifs from the show. Then, about 40 tweets into the thread, Ritter began to write in codes and ciphers. Everything changed when he shared a tweet that was only a gif of Bipper, who is Dipper Pines possessed by Bill Cipher in the series. Over the next four days, Ritter shared increasingly erratic tweets with codes, dark humor, and pictures. On August 4, Ritter then took a step back, sharing that he had nothing to do with The Book of Bill, this was all in good fun, and he didn’t know what Hirsch was planning. This was immediately followed up by a tweet in the Bipper persona in all caps, “IS WHAT HE WOULD SAY IF HE WASN’T MY PUPPET,” signaling that Ritter was playing fans. As of August 11 and over 100 tweets later, Ritter’s thread is ongoing as fans still try to figure out what is happening on the website.

What Does December 15, 2024 Have To Do with Gravity Falls?

At the time of this article, fans have discovered over 300 codes and counting that reveal some sort of content on This Is Not A Website Dot Com, and the search is still ongoing. The majority of the content is fun extra lore or jokes. However, one specific code revealed something that energized fans. Typing in the words “Alex,” “AlexHirsch,” or “Hirsch” has a small chance of revealing a fake conspiracy image breaking down how Hirsch is actually dead and has been replaced by a Disney animatronic. This animatronic is scheduled for maintenance on December 15, 2024. It took some fans over 1500 tries to get this image, making it one of the rarer reveals. Fans have zeroed in on this particular date as one to look out for. What we don’t know is if it will be a big reveal or a red herring from Hirsch, who was well-known for making up fake threads during the Gravity Falls run to throw off fans.

What is going on with the Gravity Falls fandom? Honestly, I don’t really know at the moment. This could be a fun fan event by Hirsch to celebrate the release of his latest book, which he roped some of his celebrity friends in to help with. Perhaps this is leading up to that December 15, 2024, date for a big announcement. We simply don’t know now, as fans are still finding codes, and the event is ongoing. Regardless, the Gravity Falls fandom is revitalized and enjoying whatever wild ride we’re on.