‘Futurama’ Has Ended Again, but Matt Groening Insists “We Will Rise Again”
Few animated shows have died and come back to life as many times as ‘Futurama’. The series first premiered on Fox in 1999 and ended its run there in 2003, only to return through Comedy Central in 2008 before wrapping up again in 2013. In 2023, Hulu brought it back yet again, and the crew of the Planet Express ship has been flying through New New York ever since.
That streak of stops and starts is now a defining part of the show’s identity, and its latest chapter closed on Monday. Season 14 wrapped with an episode pointedly titled “Final Ending: The Last Conclusion,” and creator Matt Groening confirmed to Variety that there are no further plans at the moment for the series to return as a regular show.
The finale itself leans into the show’s habit of teasing its own death. The episode is a flashback story with the logline: “Fry and his brother sneak into a PG-13 movie as kids … with shocking consequences for the future.” Executive producer David X. Cohen has noted that this marks the sixth time the show has been written as a potential series finale.
Even with the ending confirmed, 3 extended “XXXL-Sized” specials remain in production for Hulu, with the first, a Christmas-themed installment, set to arrive in 2027. Groening described the format shift as a chance to think bigger. “The people at Hulu/Disney were saying, ‘Hey, give us some big stories that we can promote,’ and we said, ‘Gotcha,'” he told Variety.
Groening also offered a preview of what’s coming in the Christmas special. “Our version of Christmas, of course, is with Robot Santa,” he said, referring to the violent version of St. Nick who has made occasional appearances since Season 2. He recalled that the character was once controversial because he thought everyone was naughty and tried to kill them, joking that “now everybody has figured out, hey, it’s all in good fun!”
That willingness to poke fun at its own mortality runs through the whole season. Groening summed up the mood by saying, “I think we have a whistling-past-the-graveyard attitude these days because we’ve been in this situation many times before.”
Given how many times the show has wrapped only to return, Groening is reluctant to treat this ending as final. “They can put us in a coffin. They can nail the lid shut, but they can’t bury us. We will rise again,” he told Variety, adding, “I guess I’m not too worried.”
He also addressed what happens if the specials really do mark the end. “If it doesn’t happen, we’ll do something else,” Groening said. “I love the group of people that work on this. It’s just a blast to work together.” He pointed to ‘Disenchantment’, his Netflix series that shared much of the same cast, animation studio and writers across 5 seasons.
Season 14’s penultimate episode, “A New New York Yankee in King Elfo’s Court,” brought together characters from ‘Futurama’ and ‘Disenchantment’ in a crossover that wasn’t simple to arrange. “That was a very nimble negotiation to have Disney and Netflix working together,” Groening said.
The moment reflects just how much cross-studio cooperation modern animated crossovers require, especially when the shows in question sit on 2 different streaming services.
The show’s voice actors have grown accustomed to the cycle of endings and revivals. Speaking to UPI, Billy West, who voices Fry, the Professor and Zoidberg, said the writers always prepare for the possibility that the show could return. “They always come up with a great finale and they have to write it with this anticipation that maybe the show won’t come back,” he said.
John DiMaggio, who voices Bender, said he enjoys that the season closes on another cliffhanger. “I like that style,” he said. “What’s gonna happen? Oh no.”
For now, ‘Futurama’ exists in a familiar in-between space: officially finished as a weekly series, but far from gone. With 3 supersized specials already in motion and a creator who refuses to rule out a full comeback, the Planet Express crew may not be grounded for long.
Do you think Futurama will rise again as a full series?
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