'The Simpsons' has replaced Hank Azaria with Alex Désert as the voice of Carl

The team behind The Simpsons are following through on their decision not to have white actors voice characters of colour on the show — with Alex Désert replacing Hank Azaria as Carl.

Désert provided the voice for the power plant employee in the opening episode of season 32, Variety reports, though it isn’t clear whether he will now be the permanent actor.

The star is known for his roles in Better Things and The Flash and is an experienced voice artist, including as Nick Fury in Disney XD series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Read more: Amazing bits of Simpsons trivia

Carl was one of several characters voiced by long-time cast member Azaria, who also controversially provided the vocals for Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

He will continue to voice white characters, including barman Moe, hapless cop Chief Wiggum and Comic Book Guy.

That performance was criticised in the 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu and again came in for discussion during a row about blackface on TV earlier this year.

The Simpsons made the decision to jettison white actors from Black characters at around the same time that Mike Henry announced he would no longer play Cleveland in Family Guy.

Read more: Azaria reveals why he quit Apu role

In terms of The Simpsons, other characters affected by this decision include Apu and Dr Hibbert, with the latter previously voiced by Harry Shearer.

Shearer — who also voices Ned Flanders, Mr Burns and various other characters — said he was unsure about the decision to change the approach to casting people of colour.

In August, he said: “I have a very simple belief about acting.

“The job of the actor is to play someone who they are not. That’s the gig, that’s the job description.”

Read more: Best classic Simpsons episodes to stream

The Simpsons enters its 32nd season just a few months after almost the entire catalogue of the show became available to stream as one of the big selling points of Disney+.

So there are hours and hours of The Simpsons to be found and, after a brief furore, they’re now in the correct aspect ratio as well.