Welcome back to the world of tomorrow (again)! Futurama, the beloved series created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen, is returning for a twenty-episode season at Hulu. In addition, according to Variety, production on the series will be beginning later in February 2022, and a 2023 release is hopeful. The show will once again be produced by 20th Television Animation (or is that 30th Television Animation), with Rough Draft Studios, Inc. returning to contribute the animation.
The revival will feature the return of original series cast members, including Billy West, who voices Philip J. Fry, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Dr. John Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, and others; as well as Katey Sagal as Leela; Tress MacNeille as Mom, Linda, and more; Maurice LaMarche as Lrrr, Kif, Morbo, and others; Lauren Tom as Amy Wong, Inez Wong, etcetera; Phil LaMarr as Hermes Conrad; and David Herman as Lord Nibbler. However, notably, there is one name missing from the list, and it’s a big one: John DiMaggio, who voices the metallic face of the science fiction animated comedy Bender Bending Rodriguez. The producers are hopeful that DiMaggio will return, but the character will reportedly be recast if he doesn’t.
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One of the writers on the series revival will be Cody Ziglar, who will be widely recognizable soon (if it isn’t already). Ziglar has previously written for shows like Rick & Morty and the upcoming She-Hulk on Disney+. His resume also includes Marvel Comics like Amazing Spider-Man and the forthcoming Spider-Punk.
Fans shouldn’t expect Futurama: The Next Generation, not just because of the producers’ apparent willingness to recast Bender rather than replacing him with a new, non-Flexo robot. Comments made by Marci Proietto, the head (but not head in a jar) of 20th Television Animation, suggested that the series may be picking up shortly after the narrative left off. “What I love about animation is that it’s possible for a successful show to take a pause and then resume years later, even on a different platform, and pick up right where it left off,” she said. “Futurella Futurama is one of those shows.”
Futurama’s Disenchantment with Network Television
30th Century Television
Futurama originally aired beginning in 1999 on the Fox Network. Due to rampant, careless rescheduling, the show never became the cash cow that Fox hoped a follow-up from the Simpsons guy would embody. After four production seasons aired as five television seasons, the cult series was tragically canceled before its time.
But thanks to the syndication of the previously produced episodes on Adult Swim, the workplace satire continued to accrue new fans. Soon, the Futurama received four straight-to-DVD movies, which were subsequently chopped up into four episodes apiece and aired as a new season on Comedy Central. This was followed by two more production seasons, aired as four separate seasons on the Comedy Central channel, concluding in 2013.
In the intervening years since Futurama has been off the air, Cohen and Groening have collaborated on Disenchantment, an animated streaming series on Netflix. Incidentally, this series does feature the voice acting talent of DiMaggio (as well as many other Futurama alums, to boot). The team also put out the Futurama cell phone game “Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow” in 2017. The Killer App was accompanied by a podcast episode that reunited most of the cast, including DiMaggio, who reprised the role of Bender.
There is no word on whether someone (or anyone) will revive the Futurama series at the now-defunct Bongo Comics, but hey, here’s hoping.
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About The Author
Rebecca Kaplan
(54 Articles Published)
Rebecca Kaplan (she/he) has a JD and an MS but believes comics do more good than law. His work can be found at Prism Comics, MovieWeb, Geek Girl Authority, PanelxPanel, StarTrek.com and Comics Bookcase, and in Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority, which she co-authored with his wife, Avery Kaplan.
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