Bad news, everyone! Unfortunately, Matt Groening’s best series (you heard me) is going into that dark knight… again. Entertainment Weekly reports that Comedy Central has decided not to renew the show after the final set of 13 episodes starts airing in June. I won’t go into how the show has already been resurrected twice, once as direct to DVD movie, and then as the current run on Comedy Central. Any fan worth their salt already knows this. What is interesting however are the reactions from executive producer David X. Cohen and Groening himself had to say about the situation…
Cohen told EW the following:
“I felt like we were already in the bonus round on these last couple of seasons, so I can’t say I was devastated by the news. It was what I had expected two years earlier. At this point I keep a suitcase by my office door so I can be cancelled at a moment’s notice. As I said three times before, this is definitely the absolute end of the show. I don’t know why nobody believes me when I say that.”
Whereas Matt Groening had this to say:
We’ve been in this situation before and it’s tempting when you’re doing episodes that are as good or better than anything you’ve ever done to continue doing it. We’re catching our breath and seeing what the fans have to say. The experience of this show has been so much fun from the very beginning to now — everybody is so happy to work on this show — that it’d be a shame if we all went our separate ways… We would love to continue. We have many more stories to tell. But if we don’t, this is a really great way to go out… I think these episodes are the best ones we’ve ever done.”
At least they have a sense of humor about it. Not to mention the glimmer of hope Groening gives us. That is, it’s up to us to determine if Futurama should continue. The EW article does delve into spoiler territory when it comes to the upcoming episodes mentioning such guest stars as Burt Ward, Larry Bird, and George Takei. Cohen and Groening even teased the finale a bit, which has a bit of a spoiler as well, but I had to mention this one.
Cohen:
“And the series finale, which features a wedding between Fry and Leela, is “a tasteful, emotional gorefest,” he raves. “There’s a lot of death but there’s also a lot of time travel, so that makes for an interesting combination.”
Groening:
“It’s a really satisfying ending. It’s an epic ending. If indeed it’s the ending.”
Way to tease guys, I guess the future(rama) really is what you make of it. I’m still as sad as the first time I watched ‘Jurassic Bark’, though.