Own the rights?
Potentially, yes.Just as the final episode of the series "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" was written to work as a send-off for the show, without actually wrapping everything up incase the show was re-comissioned, this film has too been written to work as both a send-off, but also just a stand-alone Futurama adventure.Depending on how well these Futurama movies perform, one of 4 possible options will be chosen by Fox: 1.Fox will order a 5th production season of the show (which will air as a 6th season). 2.Fox will order more straight-to-video movies. 3.Fox will fund a theatrical movie (something David X. Cohen is very eager to do). 4.Fox will decide to lay Futurama to rest once again.Comedy Central will not be producing more episodes themselves as they literally cannot afford it. Animated sitcoms of the standard of Futurama or The Simpsons (as opposed to say the animation of South Park) cost roughly 6 million dollars per episode. Comedy Central simply can't afford to produce more episodes of the show themselves, not to mention the undoubtedly high price Fox would charge them for the rights to the show.*UPDATE*It has been announced that this not the End!On June 9, 2009, it was confirmed that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new episodes that will begin airing in 2010.Starting in Mid 2010 we will be seeing 26 new episodes of Futurama on Comedy Central.The first 13 episodes will be shown in 2010 and the remaing 13 in 2011All we know is that Comedy Central will only be making 2 seasons of futurama standalone episodes increasing the standalone episodes of futurama from 72 to 98 episodes.See this article:http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20090813comedycentral02 which confirms new episodes will air mid-2010.What will happen to the futurama franchise after 2011 remains a mystery at this time.
r73731
