“Bad news everyone.”
Unless salary demands of Futurama‘s voice cast can be met by 20th Century Fox, the new Comedy Central episodes may be voiced by ‘soundalikes.’
Cast members John DiMaggio, Phil LaMarr, and Maurice LaMarche are said to have relayed the info on their Facebook pages.
One website, ForcesofGeek, has even republished the casting call including roles for Fry, Leela, Bender and Professor.
According to 20th Century Fox (the production company, not FOX), a statement said: “We love the Futurama voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands. 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 (creators) Matt (Groening) and David (Cohen)’s brilliantly subversive characters.”
However, many expect an outcome to be reached between the differing parties.
In 2004 and 2008, the series’ seasons were cut short after The Simpsons voice cast boycotted table reads as part of the tense salary negotiations.
Despite the salary disputes, the show reached the 20-season mark with its original voice cast intact.
Source: HitFix, Hollywood Reporter
I don’t feel sorry for anyone that get fired for asking for 75,000 per 2 hours…because as a Voice actor I know that about the time it would take to roll off the script. I auditioned for this round…but I have to say this whole thing is a ploy by Fox to get everyone back to the table.
I think in Simpsons case it was about the bad writing as well as the money.
The Voice Actors deserve a raise. Billy West has been a champion of professional voice actors. We don’t want big names. We want the guys and girls who can create amazing characters with their voices, which is what the cast have done.
I’m not the only one who won’t watch it if they change the cast and 20th Century Fox is probably counting on that.
I think it’s time to buy lots of Torgo’s Powder in anticipation of the final outcome.
You can add Zoidberg to that list as well … he is voiced by the same guy as the professor…
Actually, they have done it before when they replaced Maggie Roswell on the Simpsons – again as the result of a pay dispute.
It’s called playing hardball. They wont go ahead with the show if the original cast aren’t there, the audience will not follow.
i’m sure this casting call is just a tactic to scare the cast, the idea of trying replacing the actors is ridiculous.
I think they may have been a bit too greedy, but its pretty funny that instead of trying to meet their demans, 20C fox are just going to replace them.
On the other hand, maybe 20thC fox are the geedy ones, and don’t want to give the cast a fair pay increase.
They could do what they did on South Park when Chef’s voice actor left the show, and patch and edit voice clips from previous episodes
Big mistake fox.
if you use soundalikes I won’t bother & I love Futurama. I’ll just keep watching the old ones.
They’re ignorant. They only were *just* given back their jobs, take what work you can get.
Foolishness.
They can’t change the voices now.. it would be pointless to continue the Futurama Franchise if they don’t use the originals voices.
What?!?! Part of what made Futurama the brilliant show it is was the voices of the actors involved. They have to resolve this. Fox treated this show so terribly originally so I suppose this is no surprise that 20th Century Fox is doing it now. I was so excited when I first heard the news of Futurama coming back but now really disappointed with this news :’(
If they start making Futurama with outsourced Indian voice actors, I’m never watching again…OK I’ll probably watch one ep for the cringe worthy factor.