Batman's Adam West and Burt Ward to Guest on Futurama

Comedy Central announced today that Adam West and Burt Ward, who played Batman and Robin in the 1966 television series, will appear on the network's fan-favorite animated comedy Futurama, which is entering its final season on the network. The last (at least for now) batch of new episodes of Futurama return to air beginning on June 19 at 10 p.m. EST. Aside from the character sketches shown at right and below, Comedy Central didn't give fans much sense of what role the characters might play in the episode, which will debut in August and is titled "Leela and the Genestalk."

They did, however, use the "holy guest-stars, Batman!" line in their announcement, which is interesting. Given the fact that Warner Bros. consumer products recently began selling action figures and clothing based on the '60s camp classic, many had assumed that Fox had disassociated from the show (which it produced) to some extent, but invoking the catchphrase seems to fly in the face of that (at least a tiny bit). Legal wrangling between Fox, who own the show, and Warner Bros., who own the character, has prevented merchandise and home video editions of the series from being released for years. DC Comics recently announced that they would launch a new, ongoing, digital-first comic book title set in the world of Batman 1966. Fox retains an interest as a producer on Futurama, in spite of the fact that it was resurrected on Comedy Central years after Fox cancelled it. With the series' second cancellation, fans and members of the Futurama cast have been hoping for another stay of execution, perhaps in the form of a pickup from Netflix, who just last week revived Fox's long-cancelled sitcom Arrested Development.