Futurama wrapped up its fourteenth season on Monday with the episode “Final Ending: The Last Conclusion”, and that will end its run as an ongoing series on Hulu. There are still three more supersized specials in the works, but a fifteenth season is not currently planned on that streaming service. Series creator Matt Groening is not too concerned at the moment, though, having the following to say to Variety:
They can put us in a coffin. They can nail the lid shut, but they can’t bury us. We will rise again. I guess I’m not too worried.
The series originally ran for five seasons on Fox, from 1999 to 2003 and was cancelled. Then, after proving popular in reruns on Adult Swim, it released four direct-to-DVD films in 2006 (later split into 16 episodes to count as the sixth season). Then it returned with new episodes on Comedy Central, running for four seasons from 2019 to 2013. Then it went on an extended hiatus before returning with its eleventh season on Hulu starting in 2023. That streamer has apparently decided not to continue the show beyond the upcoming specials, but that is not necessarily the end according to Groening:
The thing about ‘Is Futurama coming to an end?’ Well, we’ve come to an end many times before. We make a joke about it with the season finale. It’s redundantly, fatalistically titled. I think we have a whistling-past-the-graveyard attitude these days because we’ve been in this situation many times before. We have lots more stories to tell. The animators and the actors and the writers all would love to do more stories and we’ll see. You never know.
The series spent some time in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings during its tenure on Hulu, and it performed relatively well for the streamer, even if it did not count as a breakout hit. And while it may be wrapping up there, Groening will likely be looking for other venues interested in picking up the series. Hulu will hold the rights to the seasons it produced for at least two years, so that could keep those from moving over for a while. But don’t be surprised if this one finds a new life at some point down the road.
As for the specials, Groening claims that “The people at Hulu/Disney were saying, ‘Hey, give us some big stories that we can promote,’ and we said, ‘Gotcha,’”. The first of these is a Christmas themed “XXXL-Sized” episode, and it will arrive at some point in 2027.
With this announcement, that now brings the nascent 2026-27 season to 12 cancelled and ending sci fi and fantasy entries (48% of shows tracked) with only 7 renewals so far (28%). You can see the breakdown of the numbers and the full list of shows for the current and prior seasons on our Cancellation Watch Page.
Futurama follows Philip J. Fry, a former pizza delivery boy, who falls into a cryogenic chamber and wakes up in the year 2999. He then joins the misfits working at the Planet Express interplanetary delivery company as he faces the challenges of living in this world of the future. The voice cast includes Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, and Maurice LaMarche.
The 2026-27 season has just started, and there are still several shows from the prior year awaiting word on their fates. Be sure to stay tuned to CancelledSciFi.com and our social media sites for the latest updates on all the current sci-fi and fantasy shows.
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