Futurama's Bender Actor John DiMaggio Speaks Out on Salary Battle for Hulu Return

Futurama is on its way back with new episodes coming to Hulu for its second major revival, and the voice star behind Bender (and many more characters) John DiMaggio, speaks out on the salary battle he had before returning to the new Hulu season. It was first announced early last year that Hulu would be reviving Futurama with two new seasons of the fan favorite animated sitcom, but while the majority of the voice cast from the original two runs were returning for the new episodes, John DiMaggio did not sign on to return at first and asked for higher pay for the cast. 

A few months later, DiMaggio signed on to return to the new Futurama episodes and noted that he was unfortunately not paid more despite his first efforts. Speaking to Variety about his return to the new Futurama season, John DiMaggio noted that he felt like he had to say yes as Hulu was already planning on bringing in new people for the role, "..It was just like, OK, I gotta say yes, because I don't want the demise of the show on my shoulders.' They were ready to bring in other people. It was what it was."

John DiMaggio Speaks Out On Returning to Futurama on Hulu

"When they made the announcement, it wasn't like I had said no. We had been negotiating for a long time," DiMaggio began to explain. "It was a stalemate." Explaining further, "I didn't want, nor did my agent want, me standing outside of a house that I should have been having Thanksgiving dinner in," DiMaggio stated. "It was just like, OK, I gotta say yes, because I don't want the demise of the show on my shoulders.' They were ready to bring in other people.  It was what it was." Noting about the salary battle itself, DiMaggio reflected, "When you're David with a sling and you're standing up to Goliath, you try to do what you can to get your side heard. I think I did."

But it's not like this fight has dampened his return to Futurama overall as DiMaggio noted, "It makes me so happy that we can touch people with this goofy sci-fi comedy that has some of these tender moments in it...It resonates with people." As for the new episodes DiMaggio praised the writing and how it remained relevant in 2023, "That's a testament to the writers, and to the way the jokes are cultivated on this show. There are raunchy jokes, there are off-color jokes, but they don't punch down on this show...We always punched up. And that always works. That's how you win over people."

This show, whenever it comes back, people are like, 'Oh, it's the same!' It is the same," DiMaggio continued. "We've retained about 75% of the writing staff, consistently. And everybody that's new is seasoned as a motherfucker." As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes kicked in, DiMaggio noted, "It's kind of interesting that the strike is happening, because it's all the stuff that I wanted and was fighting for — not only myself, but everybody else...Now it's not just me versus them. Now it's everybody versus them."

Are you excited to see John DiMaggio returning in Futurama's new seasons on Hulu? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!

via Variety