Futurama Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

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Futurama Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

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‘Futurama’ Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

Good news, everyone! “Futurama” is being revived at Hulu.

Variety has learned that the streaming service has ordered 20 new episodes of the adult animated sci-fi comedy series. The revival hails from David X. Cohen and Matt Groening. Cohen developed the original series with Groening, the series creator.

Original series cast members Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman will all return. John DiMaggio, who voiced Bender and several minor characters, is not currently attached. According to an individual with knowledge of the project, the producers are hopeful DiMaggio will return. Should that not happen, Bender will be recast.

Though DiMaggio did not initially make a statement about the revival, he retweeted several posts in which others expressed their desire for him to return. “@TheJohnDiMaggio needs to come back as Bender or this isn’t good news, everyone,” one retweet read, while another simply said: “Come on, pay the man!”

Later Wednesday afternoon, DiMaggio did provide an update through his Twitter, thanking fans for their concerns and promising to keep people posted on his potential involvement with the project.



Production will begin this month with an eye towards a 2023 premiere.

“I’m thrilled to have another chance to think about the future… or really anything other than the present,” said Cohen.

“It’s a true honor to announce the triumphant return of ‘Futurama’ one more time before we get canceled abruptly again,” added Groening.


“Futurama” focuses on the life of Philip Fry (West), a 25-year-old pizza delivery boy who accidentally freezes himself on December 31, 1999 and wakes up 1,000 years later with a fresh start at life and a new group of friends including Leela (Sagal), a tough but lovely one-eyed mutant, and Bender, a robot who is fond of drinking excessively, smoking cigars, and stealing anything not nailed down.

“When presented with the opportunity to bring fans and viewers new episodes of ‘Futurama,’ we couldn’t wait to dive in,” said Craig Erwich, president of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment. “This iconic series helped blaze the trail for the success of adult animation since its initial launch and we look forward to Matt & David continuing to pave the way and further establishing Hulu as the premiere destination for fans of the genre.”

20th Television Animation is producing “Futurama” with Rough Draft Studios, Inc. contributing the animation.

This marks the second time the show has been brought back since it originally launched in 1999. After its initial four-season run on Fox, reruns of the show found new life as part of the Adult Swim lineup on Cartoon Network and on DVD. Four direct-to-video films were then produced, which were later re-edited into a fifth season that aired on Comedy Central starting in 2008. Comedy Central would go on to air two more seasons consisting of 26 episodes each between 2010 and 2013.

The show developed a strong cult following over the years and was also met with critical success. It was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards in total, winning six, including best animated program twice as well as winning twice for best individual achievement in animation. LaMarche won twice for best voiceover performance.

“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. ‘Futurama’ is one of those shows,” said Marci Proietto, head of 20th Television Animation. “The excitement from Hulu about returning Matt and David’s genius creation for all-new episodes has been off the charts. I’m thrilled that this incredible team will get to tell more stories, and that our Planet Express crew will have more adventures together. It’s a win for the fans who have loved the show since the beginning, and for the ones who will now discover it for the very first time.”

Source: Variety

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Re: Futurama Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

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Statistically the least likely thing to ever happen. I'd have put money on it never coming back after the final ending. And before anyone asks, I've had a few people ask if I am excited for it...
And all I can reply is: "I have no strong feelings one way or the other" Now, I realise using a futurama quote to dispel excitement on my end may seem a little odd.

But there's too many variables at play here to get hyped. More important than the cast (which if it isn't complete, they seriously shouldn't bother) is the writing staff. If they don't have the full original staff on board, well that would be like leaving port without a full compliment of olives! You really thing you can explain why?

I can't get hyped for it, and I won't be counting down the days (like every other time it came back) But will I watch it when its out? and more importantly, like it when it's out?
All I know is my gut says maybe!

Was looking forward to the boondocks reboot, and King of the hill and beavis and butthead reboots way more than this.
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Re: Futurama Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

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Futurama eh? I think I member that show. Ain't that the one where the robot is always talking about biting his tin can butt?
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Holy shit David Herman looks different.
I'm not seeing Katey though.

If I saw David Cohen, Maurice, Phil, John, Billy or Lauren walking down the street I'd instantly recognise them all, I could walk past David Herman and look him straight in the eyes and I would not have even known.

I hope these new episodes are good, but looking at the titles I'm not holding my breath.
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We should write our own fan fiction episodes.

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2dr wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 4:43 am We should write our own fan fiction episodes.
With Blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the episodes and the blackjack! Ah, screw the whole thing...
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Serial 1: High School Resurrection.
Episode 1a: Son of a Physicist.
Synopsis:
A high school assignment involves developing a model of an historical period on Earth. One brilliant student, the son of a Physicist, uses quantum computers and Reality Penetrating Radar to fabricate a quantum model of Earth in the year 2019.

The teacher who is of Chinese lineage and a PhD candidate for ancient Chinese policy inspects the model. His equipment detects the presence of a stable wormhole generated by the radar. He takes a closer look and is drawn into the model. He appears in Wuhan China in 2019 and visits laboratories interacting with scientists. Impressed by the realism, he returns to the future only to discover that the world has fundamentally changed.

Upon investigation he finds that the inciting incident was COVID-19. In the 31st century, coronaviruses were as common as the cold had been in the 21st century. Coronaviruses had become commonplace after a series of pandemics commencing in 2136.

However he had introduced a coronavirus that he carried to 2019. He realises that the model was not a mere model but a portal to ancient Earth. He gives the student an A+ and expels him for fucking round with history.

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Re: Futurama Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

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Episode 1b:
Synopsis:
The Professor finds that much of the technology he enjoyed has ceased to exist. The Alien Alliance Laboratories that had collaborated with aliens to build most of the modern world did not exist.

The Professor realises that contact had been made with aliens in 2138 because they were sent to an outpost medical facility in orbit around Saturn that was trying to save the Mayor of Mimas from the coronavirus that had emerged two years previous. The aliens picked up the Quarantine message and offered to help.

But with the pandemic being more than a century earlier, the aliens were not attracted by a quarantine message and thus did not make contact until 2783. By this time technology had developed enough that the aliens did not see it necessary to share their tech some 4,000 years ahead of our own.

The Professor accelerates the model to 2138 and then gets to work. He develops a far worse strain of coronavirus and infects the Mayor of Mimas. He ensures that he is taken to a medical facility. The only one available was orbiting Jupiter. So the station is quarantined albeit in 2139, but aliens do make contact.

The Professor returns to the future again only to discover that absolutely nothing has changed. There were still no alien alliances.

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Episode 1c: Alien or A. Lien?
The Professor researches the first contact only to be appalled. The aliens saw that the virus had been artificially created and realised that it was all to attract their attention. They left, not to return until 2783.

So the Professor returns to 2139 and watches the coronavirus spread across humanity. He steps in as a specialist and helps to cure the illness. He uses his knowledge of history and 31st century technology to establish an alliance of laboratories across the solar system specifically to advance human technology.

After ten years of work, he has history back on track and fakes his death so as to return to the future. Upon arriving he finds that most of history has been restored. After his supposed death, the alliance laboratories were named after him. Thus the Professor A. Lien Alliance was still hard at work across 29 star systems and incorporated nine species of aliens from five planetary systems.

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Episode 1d: Fake News
Professor Lien begins to enjoy his success, only to discover glitches that prove he was still in the model and had never left. He realises that when he thought he left the model, he had actually accelerated the model to a future point. So at this point in the model, a child had constructed another iteration of the model which he then enters.

He realises that he was in the third iteration of the model. So a program running a program that runs a program with the complexity of the universe, there were bound to be the occasional glitch. He is relieved that he has not actually affected reality, but he still needed to find a way back.

Everything he had experienced was fake news, so he had to think outside the box. Eventually he makes the discovery and exits the third iteration into the second.

Right about then, the student meets with the substitute Professor about the model. She is impressed and gives the student an A+. She deactivates the model meaning that everything inside, including Professor Lien ceased to exist as the Quantum wave-function algorithm collapsed.

The student leads the female Professor into the laboratory. He inspects his model. He is disappointed and says “But there were two iterations of the model operating in here. I swear there were.”

At this time the police officer informs the Professor that their investigation was concluded. Professor Lien had most likely given into pressure and done a runner.

The High School Principal offers the Professor the job of History teacher full time. She accepts. The student decides not to deactivate the model. He explains that as the coronavirus is present from 2019, the program would run along an alternative timeline. He was interested to see how it turns out. The Professor claims that the people within were probably self aware and believed their world to be the real world.

The student says that it was never his intention to Resurrect the ancient world.

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Re: Futurama Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

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It's now 2023. Futurama ended in 2003, and then ended again in 2013.

Will it be axed as soon as the episodes premiere so it can be ended in 2023 as well?
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According to Lauren Tom on twitter.
Why, here's a twit now:
"The new episodes should be released sometime this summer! Can’t wait for you to see them!"

So from America to Australia: Winter.
And from America to Worldwide: June-August.

I'm pretty sure we'll be getting it on Disney Plus downunder since we still don't have Hulu.

Fun fact: once upon a time I traded some Monopoly set cards to her in exchange for an autograph.

See, I bought 3 sets of Futurama Monopoly which Roofus sent to me because he is awesome, the sets were printed with errors on a few of the cards that rendered play impossible and they issued the replacement cards just in time to be shipped to me with the sets. I gave a friend one of the sets for his birthday and kept 2 for myself.
Upon getting her autograph on the monopoly set (after couple of DVD covers) she was telling me about how they gave her a set but she couldn't play it because they didn't send her the cards. As I was out of money for more autographs because I already got 3 and a photo, and knew I could lose a set of cards and still play the game, I asked if I gave her the set of cards she needed to play the game, could I have another Autograph and she said that seemed fair and agreed to a trade, so I ended up getting my photo with her signed as well.

A couple of years after that, I sold my now incomplete and still sealed NON signed copy to a lunatic for $150... He had the set, but wanted the exclusive pre-order only golden Bender piece.

I still have my signed and complete set on my Futurama shelf. It's still mostly sealed, but I had to tear open an end of the plastic to get it signed by Billy, John and Lauren. I can't remember who signed it first (I could look up the Photos) but I'm 99% I got Billy and John's autographs on the set at the same time while in Adelaide. Skynet was at the same Expo! And I'm 99% I got Lauren's autograph in Sydney.

That was roughly a decade ago now.
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Fairly certain I got all my expo events done within a 2-3 year period, never been back to one since :olol:

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Skynet wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 6:46 pm Fairly certain I got all my expo events done within a 2-3 year period, never been back to one since :olol:
I haven't been to one since 2016. (And that was because I got free entry and free photos and autographs with celebrities for doing photo work for the Delorean)

After I met Christopher Lloyd, there's not many celebrities who are a need to meet...
The expos would have to get someone pretty fucking good to get me out the house and paying the increasingly ridiculous prices to top meeting Christopher Lloyd. The man is a legend.

I'd go to an expo again for the following:
Michael J Fox.
Matt Groening.
David Cohen.
Lewis Morton. (The best Futurama writer)
Mike Judge.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Katey Sagal.
David Herman.
Maurice LeMarche.
Stephen Root.
And that's it.. most of those people are involved with Futurama, but what elevates me wanting to meet them above any number of other people who worked on Futurama, is that they've made a significant amount of impact outside of my favourite ever piece of entertainment.

I don't see any local expos getting any of those people, so one day I'll have to have a trip to Comic-con.

Meeting various people at the same time I went out of my way to meet people from futurama was nice (Like Raymond E. Feist, Verne Troyer, Richard Kiel, George Lazenby, Richard Horvitz, Stephanie Sheh, Kyle Herbert, Todd Haberkon, Charles Martinet to name a few) but without the draw of Futurama and friends, I wouldn't have met any of them.

I may go to a nerd convention to meet Billy West again, because he's the greatest voice actor alive, but I'd want to see if anyone else was there as well since I've met him 3 times already.
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