Futurama is coming back… again. A new season of 20 episodes will premiere on Hulu in 2023.
The beloved sci-fi animated comedy has had a tumultuous television run. Futurama first premiered on Fox in 1999 and ran for 72 episodes before being canceled in 2003. The series returned with four direct-tv-DVD films between 2008 and 2009. The success of these films led Comedy Central to revive it for 52 additional episodes in 2010. It ran until 2013, when it finally ended for good. Or so we thought.
The series finale, “Meanwhile,” saw Fry and Leela live their lives as the universe stood still through a freak accident. While intended to serve as a cap on their relationship and the series as a whole, “Meanwhile” also left the door open as a gateway to a potential revival. So, how could Hulu’s revival take advantage of that and set up a new storyline?
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Here, we’ll look at how Futurama’s series finale could successfully serve as the jumping-off point for the next revival.
What Happened in the Futurama Series Finale?
20th Television
First, let’s recap what happened in the series finale, “Meanwhile.” After an accident where Leela is almost killed, Fry decides that he cannot live without her and makes plans to propose. Around the same time, the Professor invents a “time button” that will send the entire universe (minus the person who pushed the button) back in time ten seconds. Of course, Fry steals this button with the intention of using it to keep reliving the moment he proposes to Leela.
At the proposal dinner, a mix-up makes Fry think that Leela isn’t going to show up, and he throws himself off the roof of the restaurant. As he falls, he sees Leela coming and pushes the time button to reset himself to the roof. However, since he’s been falling for more than ten seconds, the button will not return him to the roof. The button cannot be pushed twice in a row, as it takes ten seconds to recharge, so Fry is stuck in an endless loop of falling and resetting.
RELATED: Futurama Revival: Plot, Cast, and Everything Else We Know
The Professor arrives with the rest of the crew in their “time shelter,” which shields them from the effects of the button. Before they can try anything, the Professor steps outside the shelter just as the button is reset, seemingly killing him by shredding him across the timelines. Bender figures out a way to cushion Fry’s fall, and the group celebrates their supposed victory. While celebrating, Fry lands on the time button and destroys it, which freezes time throughout the universe, except for him and Leela. Now, as the last two people in existence, the two live their lives together with a montage covering all of their activities as they reach old age.
The Professor reappears to them during a dinner at the same restaurant years later and explains that he was not killed but rather shifted to a parallel timeline. He offers to repair the button and modify it to take them back to just before he built it, meaning none of Fry and Leela’s decades alone together will have happened. The two are ok with this and agree to “go around again” with each other.
Why We Need a Futurama Revival
On the surface, it seems like this episode was the perfect send-off for the series. Fry and Leela finally got together, and the audience was able to see their entire lives play out as the only two people on Earth. Yes, the episode was good, but none of the characters besides Fry and Leela had their arcs resolved. Everyone else froze in the position they were, and they would have stayed that way for eternity had the Professor not intervened.
We also didn’t see what happened after time was unfrozen, so the ultimate fate of the Planet Express crew was still up in the air. None of this diminishes the fact that “Meanwhile” was one of the series’ strongest episodes per both critics and fans. It could work as a season finale, but as the last in the series? It still left a lot of open doors. Besides, who wouldn’t want to see these characters again now that “Bendergate” is over and John DiMaggio is back.
How Could the Finale Set Up the Revival?
With that being said, this is one of the best possible episodes to transition the show to a revival. The ending of “Meanwhile” establishes that the next time we see the characters, the story will reset to the status quo. None of what happened with the proposal, the time button, or the universe freezing will ever exist. However, this does not mean that everything will necessarily be the same.
RELATED: Futurama Star John DiMaggio Didn’t Receive Pay Increase to Return as Bender
One hint at a change may have come from the Professor himself. When he fixes the time button, he says that he will reset the universe to just before he invented it. However, it is not clear if this is before or after Fry initially decided to propose to Leela. Since we see him decide to propose on screen before the time button is revealed, it is possible that the button was invented after. This would mean that in the reset timeline, Fry would still want to propose to Leela.
Given that she said yes the first time, we could expect that she would say yes for a second time. This could allow viewers to see them live their lives together again, but this time, with the rest of the Planet Express crew that we all know and love joining them. Essentially they would have lived two lifetimes together, even though the first was erased.
How would their new life be different when joined by everyone else? Would it still have the same end result? It’s unlikely that the revival would tackle all of this right away, but each episode could build to the eventual conclusion. Simply put, after resolving their years-long romance in the initial finale, viewers could see Fry and Leela take their journey together all over again, making “Meanwhile” the perfect episode to lead into a revival.
