Star fuels Futurama rumours

Futurama star Billy West has said another 26 episodes of the animated show are in the pipeline.

But after the comments on his website attracted huge interest from fans the actor, who provides the voice of Fry, Zoidberg and Farnsworth, backpeddled.

Earlier this year it was announced that Matt Groening’s animated sci-fi comedy was to be bought back for four feature-length, straight-to-DVD movies.

But on his website, West said: ‘They're doing 26 new episodes of Futurama for TV, and we're hammering out the deal now.

‘The original plan was to have the DVDs first, but that's no longer the case. I'm totally jammed dude.’

The show was canned by America’s Fox network in 2003, but strong DVD sales and syndication deals convinced studio chiefs there was more life in the show.

However, yesterday West suggested his excitement at the new series could have been premature after his original post was repeated across the internet.

He wrote: ‘I'm getting different bits of info that say this news may not be the case.

‘There IS something up Futurama project wise but it might be the DVDs still.

‘It's hard to keep up with things - but I'll try to do better.’

Production on the DVDs will start in July or August for a likely release early in 2007.

Published: 20 Mar 2006