Twentieth Century Fox, which is still producing the series even though new episodes will air on Comedy Central, is recasting the major voice roles for the show. That means no more Billy West (Fry, Professor, and Ziodberg), Katey Sagal (Leela), John DiMaggio (Bender), Maurice LaMarche (Kif Kroker, among others), or Tress MacNeil (Mom, and several others). Worst!
Fox released a statement saying "We love the Futurama voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands. While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David's brilliantly subversive characters."
Is it still Futurama with totally different voices, PopWatchers, or can this news bite your shiny metal — well, you know.
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Without the original actors, it’s not Futurama. This is terrible news.
Without the original actors, it’s not Futurama. This is terrible news.
Holy crap! Might as well scrap the original characters and focus on new ones in the same universe(s)! It really won’t be the same.
This is awful. =(
FOX and Comedy Central need to scrap the show No one wants replaced voices… the suits think that people will buy about anything but that season of DUKES of HAZARD with the Duke cousins was the pits and I won’t ever watch a katey sagalLESS episodes.
Sometimes you can get away with replacing ONE actor. For example, Family guy had a different chick doing Meg’s voice the first season then switched her to someone else. But I agree!! It’s TOO MANY voice changes and with TOO MANY of the main characters!!
Yeah, but Family Guy f*cking sucks and Futurama is awesome.
You’re talking about how they replaced Lacey Chabert with Mila Kunis after the first season, and the only reason it didn’t make a difference is because no one really watched at the time. Futurama is doomed with new actors.
Big mistake. Listen up Fox and Comedy Central – I WILL NOT WATCH NOR WILL I BUY ANY DVDS WITHOUT THE ORIGINAL VOICE ACTORS.
They don’t care about your one-angry-fan voice.
Besides, watch enough of it and you’ll get used to it. Like everyone else. Grow up.
Why the heck would they bring back Futurama if they replace the voices that MADE the show a hit in the first place? stupid stupid stupid move!!!!
thats like saying that Friends is coming back with 6 great new actors. Not the same show idiots
This really is incredibly stupid. It’d would be bad enough if only one voice was different but this is ALL of them. How ridiculous. They helped make “Futurama” the success it was. I really doubt I’ll be watching this new show.
Terrible news. There’s no way the show will survive, as I’m sure the fans are as dedicated to the actors as they were to the show itself. I can’t imagine Matt & David would want to continue, either (unless the actors were being unreasonable, which I doubt). It’s pointless to continue. Futurama is dead to me. Very sad.
This is a joke, right?
If that’s the case, they might as well make other drastic changes as well……give Leela two eyes, Make Bender solid gold , Zoidberg a slug and the Professor a young man, to name a few. Terrible idea! The voice actors are the characters I expect to hear.
Bad move! In animation, the characters are their voices, and the actors who provide character voices are acting as much as actors in live action shows. For the first-time viewer, it won’t matter, but for longtime fans, it’s going to be difficult to accept new voices.
It will not be the same show and shows, once again, that the big production houses believe that we are all ignorant sheep who won’t know the difference. It reminds me of when Omar Epps played Willy Mays Hays in Major League 2. They could have easily traded the character between movies but they believed that one African-American actor looked just like the rest and that was ignorance. A character who has experienced growth and multiple exposures for an audience to grow attached can never the same when they are played by different actors. (ala Batman after Michael Keaton left)
Yeah, no way in hell I’m watching it now. Pay them their money.
So they still have Phil Lamar..? Hey that’s ONE character! Just the other 34838 characters voiced by Billy and Maurice will be different.. we’ll barely notice…
Well that just killed my Futurama buzz. Such a shame.
HORRIBLE News! Noone will be able to fill their shows.
http://tvdonewright.com/2009/07
If they can’t afford the voice talents then I can’t afford to waste my time on the show. It’s not the same with different voices. Not the same at all.
FOX can forget about the fans watching new episodes of Futurama if they hire some pathetic and cheap knock-offs.
Just goes to show how moronic Fox really is. This is Bull****! I will not watch this garbage now. Way to ruin it Fox.
I for one welcome the opportunity to hear the audio reimagining of the voices of Futurama.
No, screw that. I don’t want to listen to scabs.
No original voice actors = No Futurama I’d want to watch!!
No sale.
Um, what’s the point in doing new episodes if the voice actors aren’t coming back? Why not do some new Seinfeld episodes for NBC with different actors playing the main parts while you are at it? Obviously, the audience is either too stupid to notice the changes or won’t care, right FOX? Count me out if the cast isn’t back exactly as it was.
Robot Santa just stole Xmas! For shame, Fox!
This has to be a joke.
I can’t BELIEVE this. NO SALE.
I’m just as worried about this as I was years ago when FOX announced they were casting new voices for “The Simpsons.”
no no no no no no no no no no no