Good news everyone! “Futurama” and the Planet Express delivery people are back with us this summer. The revival season of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s classic sci-fi animated series will premiere on Hulu July 24, Disney announced on Thursday. To accompany the news, a teaser for the new season was released, christening the revival “Hulurama”. Look under.
Originally a Fox series that debuted in 1999, ‘Futurama’ has had a long and bumpy run, with Hulu’s new season marking the animated series’ third revival over the course of its existence. After being deleted from brainless drones running the network in 2003 after four acclaimed seasons, the show eventually returned in the form of four TV movies released in 2008 and 2009, which were eventually split into four episodes each and counted as their own individual seasons. A Comedy Central revival premiered in 2010 and ran for two seasons before the grand finale aired in 2013.
Throughout its various iterations, ‘Futurama’ focuses on Fry (Billy West), a pizza delivery boy who is frozen in a freak accident and wakes up in the year 2999. Initially frightened by the strange future he’s ended up in, Fry eventually eventually finds purpose working with his ancestor, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (West again) as a delivery boy for his interstellar company Planet Express, along with his robot best friend Bender (John DiMaggio) and the love interest of the Cyclops Leela (Katey Sagal). Though not as long-lived or as famous as Groening’s other Fox’s animated series, “Futurama,” received acclaim throughout its run, winning six Emmy Awards and accolades for its comedy, vocal performances, and surprisingly sincere dives into emotional and dramatic territory.
Each iteration of the show has also received praise for ending with an ending that wrapped things up for good; the last episode of Comedy Central’s run seemingly ended with Fry and Leela restarting their entire timeline and restarting their lives from the show’s first episode, so it’s unclear how the revival season will follow that storyline.
West, Sagal and DiMaggio all returned for the revival season; Famously, DiMaggio started an anti-revival boycott movement over disagreements regarding cast pay when the show was announced last year, but reconvened when a new deal was reached with Hulu. The rest of the original show’s voice cast – Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and David Herman – also returned to the Planet Express spaceship. Groening and Cohen are aboard the revival as executive producers, with Ken Keeler and Claudia Katz. Rough Draft Studios animates the series, produced by 20th Century Animation.
The first episode of season 11 of ‘Futurama’ will be released on July 24th. After the premiere, new episodes of the series will debut on Hulu Mondays, for a total of 10 episodes. Hulu initially commissioned the series for 20 episodes, with the other 10 expected to premiere at a later date. Check out the teaser for the revival below.
