Futurama Reboot Talks Happening
Could Futurama be getting resurrected once again?
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Fans of the animated series Futurama may have something to hold on to here. In a recent conversation with SYFY WIRE, veteran voice performer Maurice LaMarche spoke about the possibility of a Futurama reboot. The initial conversation covered Hulu’s Animaniacs reboot but promptly moved over to Futurama, which LaMarche had a large part in.
“Sure, we all talk about it,” said LaMarche. “If Fox was to come up with the right offer, but I know Matt would love to do it again. David Cohen, I think, might be into it. I think semi-retirement is finally wearing on him [laughs]. He had to get back to writing on The Simpsons just to keep busy.” David Cohen is who Groening brought in to help develop stories and characters.
Maurice LaMarche was a large part of Futurama, voicing a large number of well-known characters that included Kif Kroker, Hedonismbot, Morbo, Dr. Perceptron, and Lrrr, the leader of the planet Omicron Persei 8. He also voiced the part of the Rod Serling-inspired narrator of Futurama’s version of The Twilight Zone they called The Scary Door.
LaMarche made no bones about it. If asked, he’d jump at the chance to voice those characters again. “I have to leave it up to the Powers That Be, but I know everybody’s into it, including the cast,” he added of a potential reboot. “It would be great to do it before Billy West turns 80. So hopefully someday there’ll be a Futurama reboot, but we’re well-practiced at the reboot thing. We got rebooted twice, so there might be less of a huzzah about it, but it’d be nice to do that again.” West, who is actually only 68-years old, voiced Phillip J. Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, and Professor Farnsworth, may best be known for his time with The Ren & Stimpy Show, where he voiced the part of Stimpy opposite John Kricfalusi’s Ren. West also voiced other characters on Ren & Stimpy such as Mr. Horse and the announcer for the “Log” ads. West eventually took over the role of Ren when Kricfalusi was fired by Nickelodeon.
Futurama told the story of a slacker delivery boy who is accidentally frozen who then wakes up in the year 3000 and was created by Groening per Fox’s request based on his success with The Simpsons. The series initially ran on Fox from 1999 through 2003 when Fox finally canceled the series. It sat in limbo for five years when Comedy Central revived it for a 16-episode stint in 2008. With its new-found success, Comedy Central then ordered another 26-episodes which ran in 13-episode blocks in both 2010 and 2011, and then another 26-episodes, 13 of which showed in 2012 and the final 13 in 2013.
LaMarche and West were not the only actors who lent their voice talents to the series. Other voices included Katey Sagal of Married with Children fame voiced Leela, Phil LaMar was Hermes Conrad, Tress MacNeille voiced Mom and many others, and John DiMaggio was Bender. Lauren Tom, David Herman, and Frank Welker also added their wonderful vocal talents.
While LaMarche is grateful to Groening for asking him to work on three of his animated shows, he doesn’t include any of those characters as his all-time favorite. The one he calls “my kid” would be Brain from Animaniacs and its spin-off Pinky and the Brain. “I’ve played a lot of characters in my career. I’ve done some fantastic shows and this is not meant as any disparagement. I’ve worked on all three of Matt Groening’s shows — two of them as a regular. I pop up on The Simpsons and just last week, I recorded a nice part for next year’s ‘Treehouse of Horror,'” LaMarche said. “I’m so grateful to Matt, and Futurama brought me two voice-over Emmys, but Brain is my child. That’s the only way I can put it. I love Lrrr, I love Kif, and Morbo and all the characters I play on Futurama, and all the ones I play on Disenchantment. But Brain’s my kid.”
Who out there is up for a Futurama reboot? Let us know.
