Current Events > Voice Actor for BENDER has REFUSED to return to FUTURAMA cause he wants MONEY!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

As news that Disney was reviving the popular animated series from Matt Groening, Futurama for Hulu, which would be its third revival, fans were delighted to hear it's making its return..and all cast members were returning except for one, John DiMaggio who played the popular character, BENDER!!

A source claims through DiMaggio's reps that he is refusing to return because he is being lowballed the offer and wants to get paid MORE than the 2 other voice actors, Billy West who voiced Phillip Fry, Dr Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth and Katey Sagal who voiced Leela.

Tress MacNielle, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman will also return but they have hit a standstill with DiMaggio for the popular character despite him wanting to return

The show follows Fry, a pizza delivery guy from NY who accidentally gets cryogenically frozen and woken up 1000 years in the future and his only descendant, Professor Farnsworth takes him and puts him to work on his delivery crew

Hulu announced it has ordered 20 new episodes to air in 2023.

They went out to West, Sagal and DiMaggio last year to begin negotiations where they sought to pay all 3 the same wage.

West and Sagal accepted byt DiMaggio's team did not and saw it not as competitive to the market or the legacy of the show and it fell apart after West and Sagal took the offer without consulting him.

They side counter offered with more competitive quotes and both sides couldn't come to an agreement as his offer would be bumped up more than the other 2.

A search for his replacement is still ongoing while the offer for him to return remains on the table as Disney does not want to pay him more than West and Sagal

Fans were not happy and have been calling for his return to voice the popular character as he is still willing and available to return assuming an agreement is reached

Do you think he deserves more than West and Sagal?

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Get that money, baby!

Someone out there can replicate the voice and be adequate enough to fill the role.

Bender is EASILY the best character on the show.

Disney should pay him or else Im boycotting the entire thing.

Wanting to get paid more than people who are as much a part of the show as you are is pretty douchey.

futurama is one of my favorite shows of all time. i have no intentions of watching the new stuff if bender is cut out or recast. pay the man his money.

Bender isn't even my favorite character on the show, but I won't watch without him lol.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


It has to do with voice actors historically being paid poorly and he wants to change that.

Yes, he's an essential character.
If you don't hire him, don't bother bringing back Futurama.

MabusIncarnate posted...

Someone out there can replicate the voice and be adequate enough to fill the role.

This. Theres a person somewhere who can be close enough to as good and would probly do it for a lot less than Sagal and fry guy.

Bender is a robot. They can explain away his voice change in 5 seconds with a quick scene of the Professor installing new firmware on him or whatever. DiMaggio really didn't think this through.

Trumble posted...

Bender is a robot. They can explain away his voice change in 5 seconds with a quick scene of the Professor installing new firmware on him or whatever. DiMaggio really didn't think this through.

This. I had a very similar thought

cardgum posted...

Yes, he's an essential character.
If you don't hire him, don't bother bringing back Futurama.

tbh I think its less about that he specifically needs to be there, and more that, if they dont do what it takes to get him back, they probably dont give enough of a fuck about the show for it to be decent anyway

I think he'll join by the end of it all.

Futurama's still ongoing?

This just shows how they care more about making garbage reboots than actually paying actors what they're worth.

He deserves the same amount of money as his other main cast members.

Not a cent more.

nfearurspecimn posted...

Futurama's still ongoing?

They're bringing it back, apparently.

Heartomaton posted...

Wanting to get paid more than people who are as much a part of the show as you are is pretty douchey.

if they are fine with getting paid less, thats nobody elses concern

KamenRiderBlade posted...

He deserves the same amount of money as his other main cast members.

Not a cent more.

What if its that they lowballed everyone and they were just happy to be back on Futurama?

seems like everyone loved making it so maybe they tried to take advantage of that and pay them less than they could have

I don't trust the media spin on this. Whenever Disney's involved, someone's getting fucked over - look at Scarlett Johansson's pay for Black Widow being tied to the theatrical profits in her contract, only for Disney to fast-track the movie to Disney+ where they'd own all the profits from people buying the movie, leading to Johannson suing Disney and being criticized for being greedy.

I feel like Disney offered the cast an okay deal, but not adequate as far as SAG-AFTRA guidelines go. DiMaggio held out as a member of SAG-AFTRA in the hopes that not only his pay would rise, but Billy West and Katey Segal's pay would rise with it - but the two decided to accept the contracts as written up without telling DiMaggio, and that cut him out of the deal.

I could easily be wrong in this, everything I just said is baseless speculation. John DiMaggio could be a huge primadonna dick. But as far as the framing of this goes, we're talking about a larger business who's been known to lowball talent and subsequently smear them when they seek fair compensation. Until more details come out about this, I don't think things panned out the way they're being portrayed.

TheGoldenEel posted...

What if its that they lowballed everyone and they were just happy to be back on Futurama?

seems like everyone loved making it so maybe they tried to take advantage of that and pay them less than they could have

Then they should've gone the "Friends" route and did collective bargaining as a group.

First off, the entire thing was unnecessary. It didn't need to brought back.

But if Disney wants to, they should just stfu and pay the guy and also bump the other two. It's Futurama. Not some new untested shit.

Sounds like it could be solved by offering better pay to West and Segal. Sounds like they signed into the project to be a part of it, while Demaggio is looking at it as a job. If it's true that the others agreed to a below average pay and Demaggio isn't ok with that, just offer them a better deal to smooth things out. It's not like Disney can't afford to pay competitive rates.

How much did the others agree to?

CanuckCowboy posted...

This. Theres a person somewhere who can be close enough to as good and would probly do it for a lot less than Sagal and fry guy.

Damn put some respect on Billy Wests name.

hire Don Cheadle to replace him.

YWS-is-King posted...

Bender is EASILY the best character on the show.

Disney should pay him or else Im boycotting the entire thing.

Agreed & DiMaggio is amazing.

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Damn put some respect on Billy Wests name.

My bad. I didn't recognize his name but his resume is fucking great.

Ricemills posted...

hire Don Cheadle to replace him.

Holy fuck.

That would be a huge shift but like a version of the character he play in house of lies would be a pretty amazing take on bender.

He deserves more than Sagal, but not more than West.

jumi posted...

He deserves more than Sagal, but not more than West.

Bahahaha no

Teh_Dr_Phil posted...

Bahahaha no

Explain? West does more voices on the show

WaterLink posted...

Explain? West does more voices on the show

Take another look at who said this. Consider what one very obvious difference between Sagal and West is. There you go.

Trumble posted...

Take another look at who said this. Consider what one very obvious difference between Sagal and West is. There you go.

Am I supposed to know who that user is?

You either die Futurama or live long enough to become The Simpsons

Trumble posted...

Take another look at who said this. Consider what one very obvious difference between Sagal and West is. There you go.

I knew someone would accuse me of sexism.

West does more voices and is the main character. Sagal and DiMaggio voice the same number of characters but DiMaggio is a bigger part of the show.

CanuckCowboy posted...

Holy fuck.

That would be a huge shift but like a version of the character he play in house of lies would be a pretty amazing take on bender.

I was making a joke on War Machine casting, but yeah he's a good actor too.

MrMallard posted...

I don't trust the media spin on this. Whenever Disney's involved, someone's getting fucked over - look at Scarlett Johansson's pay for Black Widow being tied to the theatrical profits in her contract, only for Disney to fast-track the movie to Disney+ where they'd own all the profits from people buying the movie, leading to Johannson suing Disney and being criticized for being greedy.

I feel like Disney offered the cast an okay deal, but not adequate as far as SAG-AFTRA guidelines go. DiMaggio held out as a member of SAG-AFTRA in the hopes that not only his pay would rise, but Billy West and Katey Segal's pay would rise with it - but the two decided to accept the contracts as written up without telling DiMaggio, and that cut him out of the deal.

I could easily be wrong in this, everything I just said is baseless speculation. John DiMaggio could be a huge primadonna dick. But as far as the framing of this goes, we're talking about a larger business who's been known to lowball talent and subsequently smear them when they seek fair compensation. Until more details come out about this, I don't think things panned out the way they're being portrayed.

This is my take on it as well. None of the articles on google say that DiMaggio specifically wants more money than his co-stars, like TC is trying to imply. He wants them all to get higher pay, but since they already accepted...

Hulu and 20th Television Animation went out to West, Sagal, and DiMaggio at the same time last year to begin negotiations. This is an example of "favored nations," which is a pretty standard negotiation process in the animation field that seeks to pay series regulars the same. The goal was to close those deals before reaching out to other voice actors from the original show.

According to sources, an offer was extended to all three actors. West and Sagal accepted. DiMaggio's team did not, seeing it as a lowball and not competitive to the market or the legacy of Futurama. One source suggests the favored nations process fell apart with West and Sagal taking the offer without consulting DiMaggio. Another source refutes that notion.

WHY do people make their TOPICS so OBNOXIOUS by making the TITLES look like THIS? It's MORONIC.

Fair

KainFourteh posted...

WHY do people make their TOPICS so OBNOXIOUS by making the TITLES look like THIS? It's MORONIC.

Clickbait.

It's 2022, a robot should be playing Bender.

KainFourteh posted...

WHY do people make their TOPICS so OBNOXIOUS by making the TITLES look like THIS? It's MORONIC.

You clicked it and came in to comment, topic title served it's purpose.

\_()_/

Heartomaton posted...

Wanting to get paid more than people who are as much a part of the show as you are is pretty douchey.

It really is. I can see why he thinks he's important to the show because he really fucking is, but it's still a dick move.

The only way I could see this being acceptable is maybe the offer in general was terrible and the others were willing to do it for chicken feed. Hell, him just not really wanting to do the show any more would be something I could respect more than wanting to be paid more than the others to do it.