Is
Futurama being recast? Several outlets, including
EW.com, are reporting that apparently 20th Century Fox, who produce the series, are currently auditioning actors to take over all of the major roles on the series, replacing
Billy West ("
Fry", "
Hubert J. Farnsworth", "
Zoidberg"),
Katey Sagal ("
Leela"),
John DiMaggio ("
Bender"), Maurice LaMarche ("
Kif Kroker"), and Tress MacNeille ("Mom").
IGN TV contacted 20th Century Fox and were told, "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 [Groening] and David [X. Cohen]'s brilliantly subversive characters."
With the show being brought back, certainly it wouldn't be surprising if the voice actors asked for raises – and considering
Futurama is now being produced for Comedy Central, not FOX, it's also possible those salary requests were too high for 20th Century Fox and Comedy Central to justify, since cable series typically operate at lower budgets than network series.
However, there are some interesting things to consider here. Several weeks ago, the details of the
Futurama panel at Comic-Con were revealed, and they read:
"
Futurama: Life or Death?! BE A PART OF SCI-FI HISTORY! Join Executive Producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche for high-stakes thrills as a top-ranking Fox executive decides live, on stage, whether
Futurama will make yet another triumphant return, or whether it is gone forever! The very fate of
Futurama hangs in the balance! Paramedics will be standing by in case the intense excitement causes any panelists to collapse. Raucous celebration or abject despair to follow the news."
Obviously, the whole "life or death" thing is a joke, since the show has officially been brought back. And then there's the fact that three of the cast members said to be among those being replaced are scheduled to be on the panel. Certainly, salary negotiations could have fallen apart since the panel was first set up, but it makes you wonder… One thing's for certain, it will make the
Futurama Comic-Con panel even more of a big deal. If the original cast is there, and this is an elaborate hoax, then fans will no doubt be very relieved. If they're not there, and they are indeed being recast, then it's not hard to imagine plenty of not-so-happy fan questions on the subject, to say the least.
Update: Variety is now chiming in on the
Futurama situation, and it looks like this is indeed the real deal, as in not any sort of hoax. Variety confirms that the show has a dramatically slashed budget, and that the salary offers made to the cast were far below what they were asking – which Variety says was likely around $75,000 an episode. The budget cuts (compared to what the show had when it originally was produced) have also led to a smaller writing staff and a shorter schedule to produce episodes.
If there's any hope for fans, it's the fact that a casting call for new voice actors doesn't necessarily mean that a deal still can't be made. In fact, Variety points out that when negotiations were going badly for new deals with
The Simpsons cast several years ago, similar casting inquiries were made for new actors – and obviously, in that case, the original cast did eventually come to terms on a new deal. Let's all cross our fingers that history repeats itself here...
