Warning: SPOILERS for Season 12 of Futurama are in play. If you haven’t avenged the series’ cancellation just yet, you’ve been warned.
Good day, everyone! We’re one week closer to Futuama’s Season 12 finale, closing out the adventures of Fry, Leela and our Planet Express gang on the 2024 TV schedule. Right about now is where someone would have a killer theory on how it’ll all pan out, and where creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s legendary series could be going next.
However, I find myself unable to fully commit to saying that I know where it’s going, as a disturbing pattern has left me with a wild theory about how Season 12 has progressed. Although I do have an idea on why we’re in the situation we’re currently experiencing. So in true Futurama fashion, it looks like I do have a theory, and just didn’t know it! Buckle up, folks! It’s time to dive into what could be the future of Futurama’s future!
Season 12 Has Engaged In A Pattern Of Apocalyptic, Unresolved Cliffhangers
When covering the press day for Futurama Season 12, the initial batch of episodes given ended at a rather curious spot. Out of the 10 episodes that make up the latest Hulu subscription driver, us journalists were only given the first six. Which means that for us members of the press, we were left with the “Attack of the Clothes” seemingly dark cliffhanger rattling around in our minds.
Weeks later, when Season 12, Episode 7 - “Planet Espresso” landed, I was surprised that the series had moved onto another episode. What’s more, there was yet another ominous conclusion, foreshadowing an alien race’s plan to evolve humans through coffee. That was also left hanging when Episode 8 - “Cuteness Overload” decided to turn Fuzzy Funbags into a combination of Gremlins and the Xenomorphs from Aliens.
Thankfully, the penultimate episode of Season 12, “The Futurama Mystery Liberry” was an anthology. So it’s not like those stories needed concrete endings, or to really do anything but be voice actor John DiMaggio’s pick for the most rewatchable Futurama episodes. Still, three weeks with huge closing scenes that foretell impending doom, only to go nowhere, means something, right?
Futurama’s Season 12’s Finale Is Going To Return To A Pivotal Episode…Again
Something that has also been sitting in my mind is the fact that Season 12 was previously teased to be ending with an episode that would revisit Comedy Central’s Futurama series finale, “Meanwhile.” It wouldn’t be the first time the Hulu era of episodes would do this, as Season 11’s opener, “The Impossible Stream,” returned us to that very moment in time, unfrozen and with everyone unaware of what had happened - just as promised.
Meanwhile, here’s what Season 12’s finale “Otherwise” has as its episode synopsis:
When Fry proposes to Leela, he is overcome by a near-fatal attack of déjà vu.
Hulu
The implication that Fry (Billy West) is about to have a “near-fatal” run in with familiar events is particularly curious. Especially when he suffered so many deaths, but was able to rewind time back enough to escape into what was intended to be another sweet series sendoff.
Of course, since we already know Futurama’s post-Season 12 fate, it could be assumed that we’re not going to get a warm and fuzzy finale. On the contrary, we could see something that’ll leave us all on the hook for at least another year of waiting!
I Think An Even Greater Cliffhanger Is In The Works For Futurama
Speaking with Futurama’s David Herman and John DiMaggio, work on Seasons 13 and 14 was confirmed to be ongoing. While the streaming ecosystem has seen weirder things happen to finished products, I don’t think we’re going to see another cancellation just yet.
Which is part of why I think that “Otherwise” is going to end on an even greater cliffhanger that might tie together the loose threads of Season 12. The “other part” is the fact that upon revisiting Season 11’s finale “All The Way Down,” I was reminded that Futurama was messing around with yet another sci-fi staple: the multiverse.
Right there, two universes were established as existing in the Hulu era of the series. What if the reason that multiple episodes of Season 12 ended with massive world altering consequences on our doorstep is that we’ve been observing other universes at work? And how are they all going to be tied together?
Could Futurama’s Multiverse Meddling Be Leading To Something Gigantic?
Revisiting the events of “Meanwhile” raises some interesting questions, the first of which could tie into the multiversal theory. Seeing as Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) was shifted into another timeline in Futurama’s second series finale, he was able to manipulate that fact to save Fry and Leela after “decades” of trying. So what if the events we’re seeing are even more tangent timelines that spring from The Professor’s successful reboot at the beginning of Season 11?
Also, what if Hulu’s multiple seasons are meant to bring greater continuity to Futurama, which has already ended twice? Engaging in such storytelling is a pretty wicked way of addressing how we’ve seen Fry and Leela (Katey Sagal) score happily ever after in each series finale, only to have it yanked away in some way by the good news of a revival.
On the brighter side, this kind of story does seemingly dare Hulu to cancel the series again while it’s telling its current story. That’s definitely the type of “bite the hand that feeds” attitude Futurama has always exhibited, so I wouldn’t put it past this writer’s room to try and pull it all together.
Futurama’s Hulu Era Suggests An Even Longer Game Is At Work
Think about it: if Futurama went into production knowing there was a set number of seasons, that means Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and the entire writing staff could go all Kevin Feige on our asses and start playing a seriously long game that encompasses the entire Hulu era so far. Why else would “All The Way Down” have gone to such great lengths to explain the concept of the multiverse?
And before anyone thinks that the Futurama writer’s room doesn’t think this far ahead, consider the following: “The Futurama Mystery Liberry’s” opening title card included the message “You streamed it, you can’t unstream it.” Acting as a sly reference to “Anthology of Interest 2,” it’s just another example of the series’ consideration for continuity being on point. So if this whole shell game I’ve described is true, we just may have experienced multiple universes in this story’s existence, with more to come.
Or perhaps I’m just a crackpot who’s been zooming around the universe for too long to know what’s up! We’ll see what happens next week, when Futurama’s Season 12 finale “Otherwise,” debuts with everything new on Hulu Monday, September 30th.
