Futurama Producers Hint at Ambitions for a New Movie

Futurama is gearing up for its 12th season on Hulu, and the show’s executive producers have hinted at the potential for a future movie. This beloved animated franchise has already returned from cancellation twice, first through direct-to-DVD films that were later repurposed for TV by Comedy Central before its latest revival on Hulu. The creators behind Futurama are no strangers to feature-length projects.

During the San Diego Comic-Con 2024 weekend, Futurama executive producers David X. Cohen and Claudia Katz discussed with ComicBook the possibility of a full feature film, a concept they are particularly enthusiastic about. According to Katz, both she and Cohen believe Futurama is exceptionally well-suited for a cinematic release.

“That’s something I know, I don’t want to speak for David, but I think Futurama is really, really well-suited to features, and so that’s something we’d be super excited about,” said Claudia Katz. David X. Cohen added his thoughts, recalling their past experience with direct-to-DVD movies.

“Yeah, we’ve lobbied for it many times. We did four of these direct-to-DVD sort of movies, but that was a great complicated process because each one had to be constructed to also decompose into four TV episodes. It was a really big process.”

Cohen elaborated on how the team has always thought Futurama would make for a great theatrical film. “We’ve always thought it would make a great feature theatrical movie. And I will say internally, occasionally we’ve gotten together and watched episodes just cast and crew on in a movie theater. It looks so fantastic, even just what these guys are doing for TV. That yeah, I think it would be great.”

He also mentioned the series creator, Matt Groening, and his visionary ideas for a potential film. “I don’t know, [Matt Groening] talks about it too, and he has some fantastical visual ideas if we were to ever do it, but I’ll let him speak to that.”

Katz further highlighted how the sci-fi elements of Futurama make it an ideal candidate for a movie. “I think also we have such great characters, such great writing and the sci-fi that the show really, I think maybe even more than The Simpsons, it’s just more conducive to a super exciting feature. So I hope we get to do that eventually.”

Cohen revealed that they somewhat approach the show with the mindset of creating mini-movies. “When we’re writing it, I mean honestly, we approach each episode as a movie basically. It’s like we’re going to do a sci-fi movie [in] 22 minutes. But that’s sort of how we think of it. And what you would want to see in the movie about this sci-fi topic.”