The rumors are true–“Futurama” is coming back.
But the news is even better than we originally though. Earlier this week, reports indicated that Comedy Central was close to signing off on a deal to give us 13 more episodes of the popular animated series. According to the Hollywood Reporter, we’ll get double that–or 26 new episodes.
The new episodes will be split into two seasons for the cable channel.
“Futurama” is coming back thanks to its success in repeats and on DVD. Four movies were commissioned for direct-to-DVD and then shown on Comedy Central. Sales and ratings were solid enough to warrant two new seasons of the show.
“When we brought back ‘Family Guy’ several years ago, everyone said that it was a once in a lifetime thing — that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived,” 20th TV chairman Gary Newman said. “But ‘Futurama’ was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back.”
The order was preceded by four feature-length original “Futurama” specials: “Bender’s Big Score,” “The Beast With a Billion Backs,” “Bender’s Game” and “Into the Wild Green Yonder,” which have done well on DVD and on Comedy Central. The most recent special, “Yonder,” premieres in September on the network.
Comedy Central was happy with the specials and with the 72 produced episodes of “Futurama” it acquired from 20th Century Fox TV in 2006.
“Yet there is nothing like new, self-contained episodes week to week,” said David Bernath, Comedy Central’s senior vp programming. “This is all about reinvigorating the franchise, giving it a new burst of energy.”
The four “Futurama” specials, produced in the past 2 1/2 years, helped bridge the gap, said series creatore Matt Groening, who also created Fox/20th TV’s “The Simpsons.”
“It was a great way of keeping the show alive,” he said, “and one of the great things was that everyone enjoyed doing them, so it’s been relatively easy trying to get everyone who was originally on the show to come back.”
Though no deals have been closed, all key voice cast members are expected to return for the new episodes, along with the series’ core writing team.
As for the story lines, the new episodes will pick up where “Yonder” took off — with the main characters fleeing death and flying into the unknown.
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