Have you ever wanted to see Futurama come to life on the big screen in a live-action movie? Thanks to powerful AI technology, one fan project has made it possible. The project showcases a “live-action” version of Futurama styled after classic 1980s science-fiction films. And the result is truly remarkable!
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Futurama is an animated sci-fi sitcom created by Matt Groening (also responsible for creating The Simpsons). It ran from 1999 – 2013 and follows the adventures of Philip J Fry, a pizza delivery guy who was frozen in 1999 and woke up 1000 years later to a very different future. He starts working as an interplanetary delivery man alongside Leela and Bender.
With the show set to revive with most of the original cast, @fourfingerpod decided to break out the AI and see what the characters might have looked like if Futurama was a live-action series filmed in the 1980s.
Fans saw the live-action Futurama movie versions of Bender, Fry, Leela, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidbery and others. While it was cool to see what the live-action versions of the beloved characters might have looked like, the art was enough to make fans happy that Futurama would remain an animation.
What to Expect From the Reboot
In February last year, Hulu announced that the old series would get a reboot. While there isn’t yet an exact date, we know we could receive it sometime in the summer of 2023. Details about the new 20-episode season are scarce, but we know the titles of the first ten, which hint at the content to come.
All the titles keep to the tone of the original episodes and include: All the Way Down, Children of a Lesser Bog, Parasites Regained, Rage Against the Vaccine, The Impossible Stream, and Zapp Gets Cancelled.
While some titles imply that the new season could tackle some modern issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, others make call-backs to previous episodes. For example, we might look back at Fry’s parasite storyline (introduced in season 2) and even receive a visit from Kif and Amy’s babies.
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What Could Happen in the New Episodes
The Impossible Stream will probably follow from where the series finale ended. The tunnels Professor Farnsworth dug through orthogonal time probably had negative repercussions that everyone must work together to fix. The episode could satirise the new season being brought back as a Hulu exclusive, as it did for Bender’s Big Score and the season 6 premiere.
Rage Against The Vaccine and Zapp Get Cancelled will probably comment on more modern issues and make fun of COVID-19 and Cancel Culture, respectively.
How The West Was 1010001 will probably focus almost entirely on Bender (which always makes for an entertaining episode). The binary code in the title is the letter Q, perhaps referencing Cubert’s involvement in this episode.
There’s no doubt that each one will be just as entertaining as previous Futurama episodes.
Fans are excited that so many of the original cast will be making a comeback. Billy West, Joe DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, Lauren Tom, Maurice LaMarche, Phil Lamarr and Tress MacNeille are among those returning. We are already at the end of February, so fans can be sure to receive further news about the reboot very soon. We can all be happy that Hulu hasn’t decided to take a weird live-action approach with the show.
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TL;DR
- Futurama is getting a reboot, and much of the cast is returning.
- The episode titles reveal what the 20 episodes could be about.
- New AI art has made fans happy that the reboot is animated and not live-action.