Here’s the letter that was sent to anyone who harassed casting director Scott Muller:

Dear Futurama Fan,

Thank you for voicing your strong support for Futurama and the original voice cast. We appreciate the time you took to fire off a thoughtful and/or concerned and/or homicidal e-mail message to our casting director, Scott Muller. (Rest assured, not a single one of these e-mails reached the actual decision-makers at 20th Century Fox Television. For future reference, please note that Scott Muller is in fact one of Futurama’s biggest fans, and was instrumental in bringing about the return of the cast. Please hoist a bottle of Olde Fortran for Scott!)

Speaking of the cast returning… good news, everyone! The cast is returning! All of our series regulars are back in action for Season 6. Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and David Herman are all on board and have already begun delivering their customary virtuoso performances. The all-new Futurama episodes are slated to air on Comedy Central beginning in June, 2010.

We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of support for the series. Your loyalty over the years has kept the show going through its original four seasons on FOX, its subsequent reincarnations on Adult Swim and DVD, and now its Bendiferous return to life on Comedy Central. See you in the (near) future!

Sincerely,

David X. Cohen & Matt Groening

The deal was sealed about three weeks ago, but somehow we missed it because of our myopic, obsessive focus on gadgets and only gadgets. Who won that election everyone was talking about last fall, anyways? [Thanks, Ivan!]

Now with Kooky Chew Human Dog Food, you can succumb to temptation and indulge in the succulent but crunchy world of kibble. And you even get a bundled bowl to complete the experience.

70 grams of crunchy cookies come in every $US1.49 pack (cheap!), coupled with a delectable candy bone that’s almost as delicious looking as a raw hide. It’s my greatest wish that adding a bit of water to the mix will produce a frothy beef gravy. But if not, I guess that’s why God gave us Manwich. [Stupid via Nerd Approved]

It’s like the time Vince McMahon tried to pawn off a fake Razor Ramon and Diesel on us. Or the time the Fresh Prince’s mum inexplicably became four shades lighter over the course of a season (Vitiligo?). Or maybe more relevant, the time Cartoon Network aired all those new episodes of Dragonball Z, and Goku sounded like he was severely constipated.

The point is this: if you’re bringing the show back for the rabid, already-established fanbase who knows the show best, how are you going to recast all the main voices and think the fans won’t care or notice? It wont work. [CrunchGear]

After four movies (most of which we covered here), Comedy Central decides that they want more of Futurama and renewed them for TWENTY SIX new episodes starting 2010. That’s twice the amount of episodes that were rumoured.

Don’t forget to check out our David X. Cohen interview as well. [EW - Thanks Daniel!]

Jason Chen asked me a simple question this morning. “How big of a nerd would you be to use a wearable computer in 2009? In 2030 it’d be super normal. But in 2009? Man…”

How big of a nerd, Jason? This big of a nerd. (It’s really tough to tell, but I’m pointing at myself right now. OK, technically I’m not, since I use two hands to type. But mentally, oh man, mentally I’m totally pointing at myself with double thumbs.)

Glacier Computer’s W200 is a Pip-Boy 3000, or Leela’s arm computer, or any of these wrist-worn magical devices—and it exists now. Featuring a 3.5-inch touchscreen, backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi and GPS, the Windows CE or Linux device isn’t just a weak portable computer; the inclusion of an electronic compass and energy saving tilt/motion sensor make it ideal for the wilderness explorer who needs to collect some data on the trail (or just the guy who’s too lazy to physically open a netbook).

Sure, your smartphone may be smaller and/or more powerful. But the W200 has so much geek cred that you literally will not need to watch another sci fi movie or read another comic book for the next decade. If it only included 3G, I’d be sold. (Pricing and availability are unknown.) [Glacier Computer]

Mouth: dry. Stomach: queasy. Head: racing. Not only is David X. Cohen the co-creator of one of my favourite shows of all time, he’s a fellow Berkeley computer science alum, fellow nerd, and a tremendously funny guy. He also holds the dream job—comedy writer and creator of a successful Sci Fi TV show. After fully preparing myself by watching the latest Futurama movie—Into the Wild Green Yonder—I had hours worth of questions for the man, but he only had 30 minutes.

I had to get the most important question on everyone’s minds out of the way: Will Futurama be coming back to Fox for a 6th season? Although Fox has indeed been making noises about the show’s return, Cohen said DVD sales of the fourth movie may be a deciding factor in whether or not the project would be profitable. Basically, we need to go out and buy the DVD and Blu-ray if we want to bring Futurama back. Cohen also revealed that although there is a fifty-fifty chance of the show returning, he has yet to hear more concrete details about it from Fox—according to him, though, “No news is good news.”

But how is the movie? In a word, good. In two words, very good. Into the Wild Green Yonder feels as if the Futurama writers used the first three movies as practice for getting back into the groove of writing Futurama episodes and was a final coda to the series. That’s not to say that the first three movies were bad—they were just different.

If the Bender-focused, first half hour of the movie were its own episode, it would solidly land in any “top ten funniest Futurama episodes of all times” list, hands down. However, because the next 58 minutes covered some very familiar, classic Futurama-esque territory, it made Into the Green Yonder feel like the one movie—out of the four—that connected the most with the series. But why this movie, why now?

Bringing this movie back to the feel of the series, as Cohen revealed, was somewhat intentional. For each one of the Futurama movies, the writers decided that they would cover one major area of Sci Fi. The latest one, like the series itself, is more of a large space opera that comfortably cradles you back into the company of the Futurama characters you grew to love. Cohen also pointed out that a scene in the newest movie—the one where Leela is giving out space coordinates—is probably one of the “most hardcore things they’ve done” in terms of showing respect for actual science.

It’s these science fans as well as the more hardcore viewers that would have noticed when Futurama’s writers give shout outs to real-world physics in their jokes—such as when the Professor invoked the observer effect after a horse race. This ability to mix humour with scientific intelligence is one of the greatest benefits of having so many smart writers on staff. The other benefit? The ability to actually have an interesting vision of the future.

And it’s this future that Fry’s trying to save once again. This could be why the Green Yonder felt like it was slightly retreading old territory. If you’ve seen some of Fry’s Nibblonian episodes, I’m sure you’re familiar with the basic premise—we get it: Fry’s special and he’s the only one who can save the universe. But that’s not to say there weren’t some great moments to be had during these 88 minutes. This is more akin to strolling down a familiar street you haven’t seen in years, examining which stores have changed and which haven’t, and reveling in the fact that you’re lucky enough to be back once more.

As the series draws to a (temporary) close, we wonder if we’ve learned the entirety of Fry’s origin story and how he came to be in the year 3000. Not to worry, Cohen assures that he is not finished with that tale quite yet. When asked how much of it was left—after the Nibblonian saga was finished and the “Lars” adventure in the first DVD movie—he responded that there is “one sentence,” uttered in the series that was left unaddressed. But it’s up to superfans to figure out which sentence, not to mention which episode, he is referring to.

Because David X. Cohen helped create the entire world and backstory of Futurama, he’s given a lot of thought to the future. Our future. Because he didn’t want to go to extremes and create either a utopia or a dystopia, Futurama’s universe is only about 50% realistic, according to Cohen. It does, however, borrow some ideas from our own world for both comedic and dramatic effect.

So what, if anything, in our real world future is David X. Cohen most afraid of? It isn’t robots, surprisingly enough. It’s stuff like nuclear bombs. Wars. And technology that kills people, fast. Things that—when taking the fact that Cohen grew up in the cold war and studied physics at Harvard into account—makes a lot of sense. But robots? Nope.

You would think that because Cohen is such a fan of robots, it would make sense that he’d own a Roomba. But he doesn’t. He laughs that Matt Groening gives him shit for this fact (if anyone should have a Roomba, it would be Cohen).

Is there any Futurama left to tell? Cohen thinks so. Besides further expanding on Fry’s origin story, he’s got plans to make the Planet Express crew exhibits in an alien zoo (among other things). However, beyond little ideas here and there, what’s currently occupying Cohen’s mind is how to escape from the crazy corner they’ve painted themselves into at the end of Green Yonder. Given Fox’s recent interest in bringing back the show for another season on television (50/50 chance!), it’s one mess Cohen will likely have to bend his way out of.

As for the Roomba, if Cohen ever were to get one, he’d name it Browser.

Are you excited for the movie? All signs point to it being great, and I’m going to (hopefully) be seeing a screening of it tonight in LA. Will report back afterwards! [Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder on Blu-ray]