“Futurama” has been renewed for two more new seasons at Hulu, Variety has learned.
The revival of the beloved adult animated series has been picked up for an additional 20 episodes at the streaming service. Hulu had picked the show up for 20 episodes back in February 2022, the first 10 of which were released starting in July. The premiere date for the second batch of 10 from that order has yet to be announced, though it is expected to debut in 2024. The new order will bring the show to Seasons 13 and 14 (or 10 and 11 depending on how you break it down).
Hulu’s revival of the series 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 official description for the new season states, “After a brief ten-year hiatus, ‘Futurama’ has crawled triumphantly from the cryogenic tube, its full original cast and satirical spirit intact. The ten all-new episodes of season eleven have something for everyone. New viewers will be able to pick up the series from here, while long-time fans will recognize payoffs to decades-long mysteries – including developments in the epic love story of Fry and Leela, the mysterious contents of Nibbler’s litter box, the secret history of evil Robot Santa, and the whereabouts of Kif and Amy’s tadpoles. Meanwhile there’s a whole new pandemic in town as the crew explores the future of vaccines, bitcoin, cancel culture, and streaming TV.”
The entire main cast of the original series — John DiMaggio, Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and David Herman — returned for the new Hulu episodes. “Futurama” is created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen. Executive producers include Groening, Cohen, Ken Keeler, and Claudia Katz. 20th Television Animation is the studio.
“Futurama” is a key part of Hulu’s recently launched “Animayhem” brand, a hub on Hulu that serves as the home to the streamer’s expansive library of adult animation and anime content.
Felt the same way. The soul was gone, the delivery felt off and stilted. The show just felt different. I kept on thinking to myself “they would have never done that or done it like that in the old show”.
Charm just isn’t there and I really wanted to like it. I even watched every episode twice and while there are some enjoyable moments the tone just is off-key enough it becomes frustrating because it’s close but not the same.
In particular as one example the universe simulation episode and particularly Bender’s actions (in the face of what he and the characters thought they meant would happen to him) just seemed out of character and random, like forced for the sake of delivering the point. As a speculative what-if machine episode it would have worked.
Yeah I concur. Like they are going through the motions but they just don’t have the passion. It’s a real shame.