John DiMaggio Is Right To Hold His Ground With The Futurama Pay Dispute
Futurama is coming back. Earlier this month Hulu announced it had ordered 20 new episodes of the beloved animated sitcom that will be coming exclusively to its streaming service. This is big news, even to someone like me who wasn’t entirely enamoured with the show as a kid. I watched it with my siblings and was desperate for my parents to buy me the mediocre PS2 game, but it was far from an obsession. To me, it just remains a good show.
But I’d be a fool not to recognise Futurama as iconic. Bender, Fry, Leela, Zoidberg, and countless others are characters who are quoted constantly to this day. The writing was so sharp and the world building so cohesive that you couldn’t help but lose yourself in each new story Matt Groening’s creation had to tell.
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Yet none of this would be possible without the voice talent behind such personalities. Recasting any of them would irreparably change the tone of the show, whether Billy West was ousted as Fry or Katey Sagal no longer inhabited the one-eyed shoes of Leela. It wouldn’t be the same, which makes John DiMaggio’s ongoing battle with Hulu regarding fair payment for his return of Bender so important.
Bender is arguably the show’s signature character. He’s a foul-mouthed robot known for beer, blackjack, hookers, and having anyone and everyone bite his shiny metal ass. His voice is so distinct that replacing DiMaggio in the role feels like an impossibility, yet it has been made clear that even he is expendable if it becomes an obstacle to getting this reboot’s production off the ground. It’s worth noting DiMaggio also voices Elzar, Joey Mousepad, Barbados Slim, Randy, and several other
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