The Second Half Of Futurama Season 11 Has Something In Store For Star Trek Fans
The future of "Futurama" is secured, thanks to Hulu. The streaming service revived the series for the second time (following in Comedy Central's footsteps), ordering 20 new episodes following the escapades of everyone's favorite intergalactic delivery crew. Ten of those episodes debuted as a revival season (season 11 by broadcast order) earlier in 2023. Following that, the series has been renewed for two additional seasons and there's even been talk of a new "Futurama" movie.
Before getting ahead of yourselves though, there's the back half of the initial 20 episodes that Hulu ordered. This is either season 12 or season 11 part two, depending on if you go by production or broadcast order — we'll stick with the latter for now. No official release date has been given yet, but these ten new episodes are expected to arrive in 2024.
At New York Comic-Con 2023, the "Futurama" production team partook in a roundtable and teased the upcoming episodes (per CBR). According to CBR's reporting, "Futurama" fans who double as Trekkies are in for a treat; the next batch of "Futurama" episodes will include an installment that is "thematically similar to 'Star Trek.'" This is pretty vague, but it suggests an episode about space exploration and an optimistic outlook. "Futurama" is a pretty cynical comedy, but it's not immune to sincerity either.
Futurama, Where No Fan Has Gone Before
"Futurama" has a long history of intermingling with "Star Trek." After all, the series debuted in the 1990s — when "Star Trek" was on top of the science-fiction world — and was created by Gen X sci-fi nerds, who were naturally Trekkies (see co-creator David X. Cohen).
Zapp Brannigan is a parody of Captain James T. Kirk, writer David A. Goodman wrote for both "Futurama" and "Star Trek: Enterprise," and the late Leonard Nimoy (aka Mr. Spock) cameos in the very first episode of "Futurama," "Space Pilot 3000." In "Futurama," celebrities' still-living heads are preserved in jars; Fry comes face to face with Nimoy, calls him "Spock," and asks him to "do the thing" (the Vulcan salute), but unfortunately, "[he doesn't] do that anymore."
This came to a head in the episdoe "Where No Fan Has Gone Before," featuring almost the entirety of the original "Star Trek" cast (minus James Doohan and the late DeForest Kelley). This episode reveals the "Star Trek Wars," caused by rabid Trekkies in the 23rd century, which saw the series banned and the original cast (minus Nimoy) leave Earth for the planet Omega 3. They took the "sacred texts," or the original 79 "Star Trek" episodes and six follow-up movies, with them. The Planet Express crew (with Nimoy) go on a mission to find the cast and discover they're being held captive by an all-powerful gaseous alien, Melllvar.
Will the new "Trek" inspired episode be in this vein, perhaps a reunion of "The Next Generation" cast? Don't get your hopes up, for Cohen claimed at NYCC that the episode will not have any guest starring "Star Trek" actors. After all, "Futurama" already went where no fan had gone before.
"Futurama" is streaming on Hulu.