The producers of “Futurama” announced Saturday that Danny Trejo, Ana Ortiz, Tom Kenny, Cara Delevingne, Tim Gunn, Bill Nye, Kyle MacLachlan, LeVar Burton and Neil deGrasse Tyson are among the guest stars who will appear in upcoming episodes of the show.
“Futurama” producers Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and Claudia Katz joined voice stars Billy West (Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg), John DiMaggio (Bender), Lauren Tom (Amy), Phil LaMarr (Hermes), David Herman (Scravy) and Maurice LaMarche (Kev) in Ballroom 20 at San Diego Comic-Con to share spoilers and more details about the revived animated series, which launches its new batch of episodes with Season 12 this Monday on Hulu.
Futurama returned to television last fall, the second time the show has been revived. “Sometimes the show gets canceled during the symposium,” Cohen joked.
The 10 new episodes promise the next phase of Fry and Leela's love story, as well as “birthday party games to the death, the secrets of Bender's original robot village, AI friends (and enemies), incredibly cute bean bags, and the 5-million-year-old true story behind the consciousness-altering substance known as coffee.”
In the current season's guest cast, Trejo will play Bender's cousin, Doblando, who leads Bender to the robot village they lived in in Mexico. Kenny will play “a gambling alien who forces our crew to play children's games… to the death!” Ortiz will play Marketa, “a champion robot bullfighter, Bender's mentor in the noble art of fighting bugs… and the love of Bender's life.”
Delevingne is himself, “with a few new additions. A force in the fashion world of the future.” John is himself, covering Milan Fashion Week 3024. Ney is himself, hosting the 3024 Inventors Awards. MacLachlan is himself, “enjoying a cup of the best coffee in the universe.” Burton plays “an unlicensed hologram of LeVar Burton.” DeGrasse Tyson is himself, “solving the greatest mystery of all time… with science!”
Shots: The team realized they had limited time and wanted to do something different, so instead of just showing a trailer, the stars and producers held a read-through of the entire episode. The team read “Squid Game” by Cody Ziglar, which is set to air as the second episode of the season. The “Squid Game” parody follows a group of sadistic aliens who force the characters into life-or-death games.
But after the first act, Cohen jokingly declined to show the second act as a trailer. The final act will be left to fans who have already watched the episode.
What we learned: Groening said there could be another crossover with “The Simpsons.” “Yeah, that’s a great idea!” What about Groening’s other series, “Disenchantment”? As a Netflix show, it might be hard to fit in with Disney’s Hulu. But as Cohen joked, “Oh, Disney is going to buy them in a few months anyway!”
Hulu's revival of the series marks the second time the show has been remade since it originally launched in 1999. After its initial four-season run on Fox, the reruns found new life as part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup and on DVD. Four direct-to-video movies were then produced, which were later re-edited into a fifth season that aired on Comedy Central beginning in 2008. Comedy Central would go on to air two more seasons of 26 episodes each between 2010 and 2013. Hulu picked up the show for 20 episodes in February 2022, and renewed it for two more seasons last November.
