The voice cast were not present at the panel; however, showrunners Matt Groening and David X. Cohen were present, accompanied by writers and animators. Hypotoad was present to tell the audience to ignore the voice actors’ absence.

Both Matt and David adressed the issue; Matt said: “We love our ‘Futurama’ actors. We hope that Fox and the actors can come to an agreement as soon as possible.”; “Keep your fingers crossed. What’s going on right now is business” said David.

The good news, however, is that plenty of new information regarding the new season beginning next year was revealed.

The origins of Scruffy, the janitor will be revealed; Twitter will feature in an episode, controlled by Mom; Bender and Amy will get together, bringing up a robosexual marriage debate; The Professor and Fry find a time machine and end up in a very distant future; the reasons behind why the Professor hired Zoidberg will be revealed; Fry and Leela will be more romantic; Leela and Zapp will be together on an isolated planet; and a new Anthology of Interest episode is in the works.

A Futurama film for the big screen is also something Matt would love to do: “We’d love to do a Futurama theatrical feature, It’s really fun to see Futurama on the big screen”.

According to press releases, audience members at The Simpsons panel can expect a sneak preview at the upcoming 20th Treehouse of Horror episode, “Treehouse of Horror XX”, along with further information regarding the 21st season of the show. Catch the panel at 1:45pm in ballroom 20.

Creator Matt Groening, showrunner Al Jean, executive producer Matt Selman and supervising director Mike Anderson will join some voice actors from the series at the panel.

Also due to appear at the convention is the cast behind the recently revived Futurama. This however contradicts the recent news that Fox is looking for an all-new cast for the show due to wage disagreements. Hopefully, all doubt and confusion will culminate at the panel tomorrow, when it preceeds The Simpsons panel at 1:00pm, also in ballroom 20.

Turns out that wasn’t true. The stars had all expressed interest in returning. But with the budget for Futurama dramatically slashed, the salary offers came in well below what the thesps were asking. As a result, 20th has put out a casting call to find replacement voice actors for the show.

It’s not the first time 20th has gone that route during a tough negotiation on one of its toons. The studio previously made a similar move on The Simpsons when it couldn’t come to a deal with its stars. Casting feelers were sent out for replacements, but a deal was eventually made with the original cast. The situation is unusual this time around in that 20th and Comedy Central have been kicking around ways to make Futurama, originally produced for a broadcast network (Fox), make financial sense for a cable run. Yet there’s also still a possibility — and a window built in — for Futurama to run on a broadcast network first.

It’s believed that the Futurama cast members were asking for around $75,000 per episode; it was not clear what 20th was offering. Calls to the voice stars’ reps were not immediately returned. Other costs slashed in the process led to a smaller writing staff and a shorter delivery schedule.

“We love the ‘Futurama’ voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands,” 20th Century Fox TV said in a statement. “While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David’s brilliantly subversive characters.”

Source: Variety

Collider notes that this is still technically a rumor, but that they have been given word that the Futurama production offices have been opened and guest star casting has begun for upcoming episodes. Billy West also hinted at the return of new episodes back in February, so this rumor indeed be the real deal. Should this turn out to be true, we’d expect full confirmation by next month’s Comic Con.

Edit (6/10): The above has been confirmed AND MORE! Today comes confirmation that Futurama will return in not 13, but 26 new 22-minute installments, to start airing in 2010.

Simpsons Channel has been updating you on the brief comings and goings of Futurama since the show began, so it seems fitting to announce that the first of four feature-length episodes hits DVD around North America tomorrow.

The episode titled ‘Bender’s Big Score’ is a fantastic return to form for the show. After watching, you’ll begin to wonder why the show was axed and foremost why this episode wasn’t released to theaters alongside The Simpsons Movie. The first new episode since the show’s four year absence has all the ingredients which will make it one of the best Futurama episodes you’ll ever see. It is a delightful adventure into the past, present and future of planet earth featuring all the characters you already know and love as well as some new.

This along with the other to-be-released DVDs will eventually be spliced into individual episodes (one wonders just how) to air on Comedy Central next year. You can pick it up in stores tomorrow or purchase online at Amazon.

The new batch is part of a deal the cable network made with 20th Century Fox Television last year to pick up syndicated rights to the existing “Futurama” library of 72 episodes. Comedy Central also had an option to air any new episodes produced.

New and old episodes will begin airing in 2008 on Comedy Central. Actors Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio have agreed to return as voices for “Futurama.”

“We are thrilled that Matt Groening and 20th Century Fox Television have decided to produce new episodes of ‘Futurama’ and that Comedy Central will be the first to air them,” said David Bernath, senior vice president for programming at the network.

SOURCE: Reuters

West added that there is still hope for a Futurama DVD project of some kind, as had been rumored before. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on any new word of further Futurama projects.

SOURCE: CGEF

Billy says: I’m this close to selling my show–”Billy Bastard–Amateur Human Being,” And the other good news is that they’re doing 26 new episodes of ”Futurama” for TV and we’re hammering out the deal now. The original plan was to have the DVD’s first but that’s no longer the case.I’m totaly jammed dude.

SOURCE: CGEF

While news of a direct-to-DVD release was confirmed in July last year, very little has been heard on the topic and we suspect even the show’s creators were even in the dark over details. The Simpsons Channel will endeavor to keep you informed on the latest Futurama news despite our Simpsons focus.

SOURCE: Billywest.com

The final original episode of Futurama aired on Fox in August 2003. But since then, the series has found new life — and fans — via DVD releases and repeatedly high-rated airings on the Cartoon Network. Futurama remains popular enough that Comedy Central even stole away off-net rights to the show’s repeats late last year; it will switch to the comedy channel in 2008.

SOURCE: ComingSoon