Futurama has ended. Again. But don’t worry, Matt Groening says it will return. Again. And no, this is not an old post you’ve read roughly seventeen times. It’s just that when it comes to the sci-fi animated series “Time Keeps On Slippin'” across a flat circle where Futurama is simultaneously always canceled and always on.
Matt Groening spoke to Variety about the ending of Futurama‘s 14th season that just aired on Hulu. While three Futurama specials are coming to the streaming site, the season finale— the very meta-named finale, “Final Ending: The Last Conclusion”—is currently poised to be the show’s last official regular episode. That makes this Futurama ending roughly the 18th series finale in its series history. If Groening has anything to say about it, though, it won’t be the last last episode. “They can put us in a coffin. They can nail the lid shut, but they can’t bury us. We will rise again,” Groening told Variety. He then added, “I guess I’m not too worried.”
Why would he be? Futurama is the ultimate TV phoenix. Futurama “ended” for the first time in 2003. After a revival at Comedy Central in 2008, it then said goodbye again in 2013, only to get another reboot at Hulu in 2023. Each run also ended with an episode meant to serve as a series finale (In fact, writers have actually written six episodes that serve that purpose.) Groening and the writers even made fun of that with this most recent farewell that likely won’t stick.
The creators of Futurama certainly don’t want the show to end. “We have lots more stories to tell,” he said. “The animators and the actors and the writers all would love to do more stories and we’ll see. You never know.”
I mean, yes we do, right? If there’s one thing about Futurama we know is that every goodbye means a Futurama hello.