Prior to his return to the Futurama revival, actor John DiMaggio had a public dispute over his pay with Disney. As the series is set to return next week, DiMaggio recalled the battle as a fight against Goliath.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, DiMaggio was thankful that his present and former colleagues supported him. However, the prolific voice actor said the dispute itself was a big battle.
“It was like throwing rocks at Goliath,” DiMaggio said. “A lot of my colleagues, a lot of the people that I’ve worked with in the past, a lot of the community backed me up. People were not coming in to read for it. It made it very difficult for our poor casting director. I’ve apologized to her, but it was tough. It’s one of those things where you learn how resilient you can be.”
DiMaggio’s involvement in the Futurama revival was in question last year. His return was stymied by personal concerns that the cast wasn’t being paid enough. Eventually, however, DiMaggio returned — but not with any sort of pay raise. Instead, DiMaggio said that he received “respect” for standing up to the studio, and likened the situation to both Disney and he having one another in a vice grip.
“But listen, this was the best thing about that fight: I had Disney, Hulu, I was holding on to their collective testicles so hard that they couldn’t, y’know, there was nowhere for them to go,” DiMaggio said at the time. “But there was also nowhere for me to go, and who wants to hold on to those for that long?”
What do we know about the Futurama revival?
Futurama Season 8’s first episode is set to premiere on Hulu on Monday, July 24. Following that, new episodes will be released weekly on Mondays on the streaming service. The revival features the voices of John DiMaggio, Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and David Herman.
“After a brief ten-year hiatus, Futurama has crawled triumphantly from the cryogenic tube, its full original cast and satirical spirit intact,” reads the new season’s synopsis. “The ten all-new episodes of season eleven have something for everyone. New viewers will be able to pick up the series from here, while long-time fans will recognize payoffs to decades-long mysteries – including developments in the epic love story of Fry and Leela, the mysterious contents of Nibbler’s litter box, the secret history of evil Robot Santa, and the whereabouts of Kif and Amy’s tadpoles. Meanwhile there’s a whole new pandemic in town as the crew explores the future of vaccines, bitcoin, cancel culture, and streaming TV.”
