Concept Art of what eventually became Bender
Futurama went through a lot of changes while under cryogenic development.
- The series almost didn't exist in the first place, as Matt Groening wanted to do a reboot of Rocky and Bullwinkle instead.
- The original premise was very different. Originally, Fry was going to be a gruff deliveryman who was already in the future rather than being frozen, and he would've worked for Mom.
- Eric Rogers revealed that they considered making a claymation segment for "Reincarnation" but didn't due to time constraints and money issues.
- Zapp Brannigan was intended to be played by Phil Hartman, but Hartman's death at the hands of his own wife destroyed any chance of that, so Billy West voiced the character with the same kind of smugness you'd expect from a Jerkass Phil Hartman character.
- Fry originally had "Curtis" as his given name, but was renamed "Philip" in honor of Phil Hartman. He was also originally going to be a 35-year-old who was born and had always lived in the future, but that was changed to make him more relatable to the target audience.
- Fry and Leela were originally supposed to be played by Charlie Schlatter and Nicole Sullivan respectively.
- According to Billy West, Ryan Stiles auditioned to be Dr. Zoidberg, and, in his interview with John DiMaggio
, Rob Paulsen reveals that he auditioned for Fry. David X. Cohen considered doing Bender's voice by himself. - Bender was initially designed with antennae on each side of his head, which would have functioned as ears. Several episodes have referenced this unused idea via Development Gag.
- Hermes was originally going to have the Brain Slug on his head for all of season two instead of just "Raging Bender".
- According to Lauren Tom, Amy was initially written with a relatively masculine personality and job, which would have made her border on Ambiguously Lesbian. She was rewritten as a Girly Girl in order to provide a better contrast between her and Leela, who was already a Tomboy to begin with (albeit less so before the retool), and to better suit Tom's vocal performance.
- Hermes was originally going to be named Dexter.
- Mom was originally intended to be the dictator of Earth in the setting, but as the concept developed she was turned into a Corrupt Corporate Executive, and slowly pushed to the sides until she basically became an Advertised Extra. She would, ironically, develop into something closer to her original concept over the course of the series, with her first on-screen appearance showing her as just the owner of a robot lubricant manufacturer, before later episodes showed her company to be a MegaCorp that controls practically every major industry on the planet.
- In Zapp Brannigan's introductory episode, "Love's Labors Lost in Space", he was supposed to get fatter every time he reappeared on screen, but the animators were too disgusted by the results to do it.
- "Roswell that Ends Well" was originally written as a What If? short for "Anthology of Interest II", but was cut after the story got long enough to be its own episode.
- In "Jurassic Bark", Fry's mother was originally going to be the fossilized remnant from Fry's past that he tries to revive, only to stop at the last minute, but the writers and producers rejected it as being more depressing than the dog story, somehow. The writers did end up making an episode where Fry reunites with his mother again ("Game of Tones").
- Throughout the first two seasons, there are cameo appearances by an elderly man with the number 9 on his shirt. Initially, he was supposed to represent a fictional caste system in which a person's number determined their social status. However, this idea was abandoned and, when the same character got a major role in the fourth film, the number served as his given name instead.
- Behold the early concept art for Fry, Bender, and Leela.
- Following the events of the fourth movie where the main characters go on the run and vanish into a gigantic wormhole, half the writers wanted to continue on from that while the other half wanted to pull a Writer Cop Out and end the series there. The side that wanted to continue won, leading to Comedy Central's revival.
- The original outline for the Minority Report spoof ("Law and Oracle") revolved around a character who experienced time backwards and would have been ultimately revealed as Fry and Leela's Kid from the Future.
- The climax of "Zapp Dingbat" was originally supposed to be a musical number led by Leela's father playing the Nimbus' emergency controls like a keyboard while the rest of the cast fought off the Carcarons. The sequence was fully animated and basically complete when Matt Groening vetoed the whole thing. Luckily a lot of the animation was able to be recycled and some of the lyrics to the song delivered as straight dialogue instead. The DVD offers the option of watching the episode with the original musical number intact. Also, for some reason, the musical number version was used for American syndicated broadcasts.
- In the original storyboards for "Space Pilot 3000", Fry mentions having a sister who "finally married Eddie Farnsworth" (as justification for the Professor's different surname). While Fry's sister was ultimately scrapped, the idea of Fry having siblings would eventually be revisited in "The Luck of the Fryrish" with Yancy.
- It was conceived early on for Hermes to be American, with Phil LaMarr giving him an American accent. The character then he became Jamaican early on, and he rerecorded the episodes he did.
- "Yo Leela Leela" was supposed to end with Abner Doubledeal opening an amusement park on Rumbledy-Hump, and takes a majority share of income due to the Humplings having a terrible lawyer. Leela then complains about the park, but the Humplings announce their joy at being famous. Warden Vogel thanks Leela for providing the orphans with a field trip. Leela begs for everyone to blame her, but is given a bat by the orphans, which she uses to beat up the lawyer. Because the crew felt that ending was a bit too cruel to the orphans (not to mention, Matt HATED the ending according to the DVD commentary), the ending was changed completely in the final product. However, the animatic for the original ending was completed but was never animated.
- When the series got revived on Comedy Central, the main voice cast was almost replaced due to budget cuts. Fortunately, the contract disputes were resolved and the likes of Billy West, John DiMaggio and Katey Sagal (among others) were all able to reprise their roles.
- This almost happened again when the Hulu revival happened. Most of the original cast had signed on when the project was first announced except for DiMaggio, who felt that he and his colleagues were not getting a fair deal regarding pay. After several weeks of "BenderGate", the powers that be eventually caved and reached a deal with the actor.
- Had DiMaggio not returned for the Hulu revival, Bender would have been recast with a different guest voice for each episode.
- According to Maurice LaMarche at Rhode Island Comic Con 2023, "The Impossible Stream" was going to feature a Pinky and the Brain parody scene as one of the TV shows, with Rob Paulsen reprising his role as Pinky and LaMarche returning as Brain. However, it was cut in the final product.
