In 2013, though, it looked like the series could really be done.

ButFuturamahas come back in a big way in 2017 just not in any way youve experienced it before.

)podcast-only episodeofFuturamaas special promotional material.

(The podcast, released by The Nerdist Podcast, debuted Thursday morning.

Listen to ithere.)

Of course, much of the original team got back together, making this another vital entrant in theFuturamacanon.

A bad sign, usually.

Someones consciousness could be downloaded from the Cloud.

We have much more good excuses than other genres for starting our show again.

Talk to me about getting back with the writers.

Theyve really been good about that, trying to show this as the real DNA of the seriesFuturama.

The first thing that came up, of course, is Can we do a new episode?

I said, No, probably not!

It will take a year and it will cost a huge amount of money.Both of those things are prohibitive.

At the time, I said, Well, that sounds fun.

I like old-time radio shows and stuff.

But again, It just seems hard to pull the pieces together.

Sure enough, it has happened.

Its almost 45 minutes long; its about as long as two episodes of the show.

Although its one continuous epic thing.

It just kind of came together in this miraculous way.

But I think as a result it also turned out better than intended.

Its going to be, I hope, pretty exciting for all the fans.

It works in radio where you’re free to describe all the amazing things that youre not seeing.

Thats part of the fun of writing it.

You really focus on the Leela-Fry romance in that 2013 finale and end with a big romantic gesture.

They take up most of the space in the 2013 finale.

The podcast, in a way, is the opposite of that because we really wanted to hear everybody.

We dont want anybody to not hear their favorite characters.

So it was kind of a challenge to tell her story in a podcast where she cant talk.

But I think we did it.

We made it a challenge for ourselves.

Theres some deep emotion there between Bender and this robot arm, his mother.

And then its science fiction.

Theres three A-stories going on, really.

And then theres a lot of cameos from many of the side characters who weve had over the years.

So this was an attempt to broaden things out and get everybody in there.

What did Chris Hardwick bring to the world?Hes fantastic.

So he did many takes.

Would you be eager to return to a podcast format again?Yeah.

I dont want to do the bad version.

Anything we do, I want it to be the good version of that.

Weve got to be able to do the good version.

Same for the audio.

Futuramais fascinating to me, because it has existed through all these various incarnations of television.

Whats it been like, writing and reviving this show as the medium has evolved?Isnt it amazing?

Then we were off.

Up until that point in history, basically, when youre off youre off.

So then we came back in HDTV, which had been invented at that point.

And now weve got this mobile game another format that didnt exist when we started.

That breaks the chain a little bit of new-and-improved formats.

Its just really been fascinating and unexpected at every turn.

I think that would be extremely effective and you wouldnt need a gear or anything.