The voice cast of Futurama and the show’s producer 20th Century TV reached a deal for the actors to reprise their roles for a new run of the series on Comedy Central.
The compromise deals mean John DiMaggio, Billy West, Katey Sagal, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille will all be heard in their familiar roles on the 26 new episodes entering production for the cable channel to air next year, Variety reports.
“We are thrilled to have our incredible cast back,” said Matt Groening and David X. Cohen in a statement to the trade publication. “The call has already gone out to the animators to put the mouths back on the characters.”
The standoff began when Fox’s offers to the cast were lower than expected, due to the network trying to reduce the production cost of the show to make sense for a cable run instead of a broadcast network.
Fox even went so far as to put out a casting call for replacements, and the cast was absent from the show’s panel at Comic-Con.
Futurama ran on the Fox network from 1999 to 2003, followed by a series of direct to DVD features. Strong ratings for repeats and good DVD sales prompted Comedy Central to order 26 new episodes of the series.
