We're you happy with the way Futurama went out in the final DVD Into the Wild Green Yonder?

I'm proud of the way it ended. I feel like it sets the right tone. Its got a bittersweet tone. I feel that it did the job and ended on the correct bittersweet note, that a last - a possibly last - show should have. I hope people feel pleased with what they see, but we're also trying to hammer it home that they should miss Futurama. Hopefully it brings a tear to the eye that gets wiped away, before anyone notices.

Was it difficult for you, writing the goodbye?

Yes, but since we've written our last episode before, for TV, and even before that we thought we might be writing our last episode, we're starting to get good at writing our last episode ever.... We try to do something that you will be happy with, or proud of, if it is the last one - but leave the window open just a little bit to peek back in, in case Fox gets excited again.

So will the show be coming back? We've been hearing rumors that there's a chance?

Rumors coming out of Billy West's mouth, by chance? I don't know where he's getting his information from, but he has been saying some things. Which is a good thing, because our entire cast is cast is very supportive and enthusiastic, and I think that comes across. It's really been fun to work with people who are so into the show. But I think that's a little bit of wishful thinking. That said, there definitely is a possibility. It's not 90% though. It's more 50/50. Basically, all I genuinely know is that Fox is talking about it, they're thinking about it. But they're not talking about it with us, they're thinking about it among themselves. We know it's under consideration, apparently it's taking a while. But the DVDs have done well, so we'll see what happens. There is definitely a chance.

Do you and Matt Groening want to keep Futurama around? Do you have more stories to tell?

I was just telling Matt that every morning in the shower, I find myself, against my will, working on the next episode. I feel like I have a lot of the next adventure plotted out. I will actually be pretty disappointed if I don't get to write that out, because I've devoted so many showers to it.

So what do you come up with in the shower?

Of course it would require going through Matt Groening, and possibly the people at Fox, so these are just ideas. But it will involve a sequence in which our characters are on display in an alien zoo. They are primitive beasts from another Universe.

Would you say that Fry and Leela are destined to be together?

We dropped a line in the series that suggest that Fry and Leela have some kind of destiny together, and that's an area that I would want to get back into. There are still some of the backstory to their characters that I would like to explore, if we came back to life.

What about kids? Do you think they could ever have children together, in a possible future?

Anything is possible. I'm not giving away all of the story here. One thing we want to be careful of is, to not add the crying baby to the show. There's a danger of if we had a baby around the show, the show would have to stay at home. And we think Simpsons kind of covers that territory well. Or they will keep flying around, and be the worst parents in the world. I'm not ruling it out, but what I'm saying is, if they do have offspring it will be with a scifi twist.

You guys always wrangle the best voice cameos, especially in this DVD Into the Wild Green Yonder .

Did you recognize Seth McFarland? No one knows who that is, and then when I tell them they all say, "no way!? [Spoiler]... He sings the main title song as Frank Sinatra. He had kind of a major thing that's very prominent. Nobody knows it's him. He's so good at it it's genius it's like the fourth skill on his resume. He could sing professionally at a night club.

Is there anyone you've always wanted to get on the show and if Futurama would come back on the air, or in another DVD you would go after?

There are certain musicians who I like, where it would be an excuse to meet them, like some of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin. Or David Bowie or Ice Cube, who I have met but he hasn't been on the show. I would like to get some more real scientists on, like Stephen Hawking, just to hype up the real science.

So basically everyone out there - if you want more Futurama (and I know we all do) go out and get the last DVD Into the Wild Green Yonder.

Stuart O'Connor at Screenjabber screened Into the Wild Green Yonder, due out on DVD on February 24th. His review provides a basic outline of the plot without giving away too much of how the story unfolds:

As you may deduce from the title, there is an ecological theme running through the entire movie. We begin on Mars, which is where much of the first act takes place. Property developer Leo Wong (Amy's dad) wants to demolish an entire arm of the Milky Way galaxy to make way for the biggest miniature-golf course in the universe (the first hole is on Pluto's moon, Hydra, and is a 6 billion mile par 2 — "a tough shot"). An accident during some demolition work on Mars (Wong warms up by destroying Mars Vegas to replace it with ... errr ... New Vegas) sees Fry develop mindreading abilities when a piece of women's jewellry gets lodged in his brain. Which leads to him wearing a tinfoil hat to keep the voices out, and joining the super-secret Legion of Mad Fellows (led by "Number 9 Man" — who, according to the Fox press release, is a "mysterious character from the earliest days of the series", but I can't say that I remember him). Meanwhile, Bender starts having an affair with the burlesque-dancer wife of Donbot, head of the robot Mafia (and yes, Clamps is back!) and Leela joins an eco-feminist collective and becomes an outlaw. Oh, and Professor Farnsworth is the scientist roped in to do the environmental impact report for Wong's planned mini-golf course .. which gets the go-ahead. The final piece of the galaxy in his way is a violet dwarf star, which plays a vital part in the climax, so I won't go into details. Except to say that once again, the fate of the universe depends on Fry (yeah, he gets that a lot).

Despite the numerous elements in play, O'Connor assures us that the movie weaves together the various threads nicely, and should provide a satisfying experience for fans:

Plot-wise, it's very tightly-woven and everything comes together nicely for the climax. And the finale ties everything up neatly while still leaving the way open for more, just in case. But I'm sure you're all wanting to know: is Into The Wild Green Yonder any good? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. For me, this was the best of the bunch of these straight-to-DVD-etc movies. It's got some brilliant lines ("bite my shiny metal hat"), and the makers have also stepped up the visual gags a notch — if a few of the Vegas scenes don't have you rolling on the floor, then you must be dead or else someone who simply hates Futurama. And if you're one of the latter, then what the hell are you doing reading this review?

Screenjabber's review makes me cautiously optimistic about this fourth installment (although I found myself a bit more tepid than they were on Bender's Game). Hopefully, if this is Futurama's final chapter, the series will go out on a high note.

[Screenjabber via Ain't It Cool]

Cohen told SciFi Wire that he's optimistic for life beyond the cartoon's final DVD:

Hope never dies on Futurama, or not anymore... It died once, but once you introduce the idea that you can come back from the dead, then the second time you have to have a little bit of hope that you might come back to life yet again. So we do retain hope of resurrection... The hard facts would seem to support us coming back again. From what we have heard, the DVDs have sold very well, and I have heard the phrase 'greatly exceeded' 20th Century Fox's expectations. So that's got to be a good sign, you would think. We haven't heard anything, yes or no, so it's familiar territory.

And in case he's wrong, well, there'll be a certain symmetry to Into the Wild Green Yonder, the final DVD; it's been written by Ken Keeler, who wrote the last episode of the Futurama TV series.

Bender's Game (and, yes, the Orson Scott Card pun is intentional) is released November 4th; Into The Wild Green Yonder is due next year.

A Future For Futurama? [SciFi Wire]