The following contains spoilers for Futurama season 12 episode 10, “Otherwise,” now streaming on Hulu
Futurama’sseason 12 introduces the Graveyard of Spacehips as a means of bringing the show further into the multiverse.Futuramahas always had some firm rules about its approach to sci-fi, ensuring some common-place tropes of the genre are rarer. This includes multiversal travel, with previous episodes poking fun at the concept of a limitless multiverse. Season 12 retcons some of these turns by introducing a gateway to the multiverse and throwing the Planet Express Ship through it, setting them up as a ghost ship drifting through dimensions. It’s an exciting turn, especially withFuturamaseasons 13and 14 confirmed.
The Graveyard of Spaceships is a fantastic concept, a clever element of the world that fits neatly intoFuturama’s scope. The more exciting development is the way the episode ends, setting up an adventure that could theoretically take the Planet Express Crew to any setting or location, including non-canon ones that appeared in variousanthology episodes ofFuturama. The episode reinforces why this could still work withinFuturama’s emotional arcs, highlighting how the core relationships that make the series so compelling aren’t forgotten in the process. Here’s howFuturamaseason 12 changes their multiverse and what it means going forward.
Futurama Season 12’s Black Hole “Joke” Is Surprisingly Accurate To Real Scientific Research
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What The Graveyard Of Spaceships Is & How It Works In Futurama
The Graveyard Of Ships Is The Key To Expanding Futurama
The Graveyard of Ships in theFuturamaseason 12 finale is a unique location that opens up the sci-fi comedy to more multiversal adventures in the upcoming seasons 13 and 14. “Otherwise” is largely about the Planet Express Ship being so severely damaged that the Professor decides it’s time to lay it to rest. The crew takes the “Old Bessie” to the Graveyard of Ships, which quietly serves as a final resting place for beloved spaceships. Described by the Professor as a “plasma sea,” the rift known as the Graveyardexists as a connection betweenFuturama’s universe and the multiverse.
A storm beneath all realities, the Graveyard is treated with a seriousness that’s somewhat surprising givenFuturama’s habit of turning even the saddest of events into gags. Ships that are let loose into the raging cosmic storm are shown to drift through the multiverse, passing by alternate universes. The episode’s big turn comes when Fry and the crew of the Planet Express Ship are left adrift in the multiverse, with much of the episode focusing on them being trapped in an alternate timeline andmistaken as a “ghost ship” phasing between timelineswhile encountering countless other versions of their reality.
Futurama’s New Elements Change Their Previous Multiverse Adventures
FuturamaHas Introduced Alternate Realities Before
The episode doesn’t end with that plot resolved, the Planet Express Ship voyaging into the unknown and fading into another reality. The multiverse has been an interesting element ofFuturamasince the early seasons, with seemingly contradictory elements actually expanding the universe in interesting ways. Season 3’s “I Dated a Robot” that there was only one parallel universe running directly alongside the mainlineFuturamatimeline. However, season 5’s “The Farnsworth Parabox” saw the crew venture across several other universes that had simultaneously built one another, effectively forming a self-made multiverse that could only be expanded by further invention and experimentation.
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Other dimensions have also been confirmed to exist inFuturama’s setting, such as the space outside reality from season 6 or the 2-dimensional timeline glimpsed in season 10’s “2-D Blacktop.” However, this wider confirmed multiverse opens up the series to all sorts of differing adventures or explorations. Before, their dimensional excursions were brief and relatively contained. In their current state drifting between realities, the Planet Express Crew could theoretically go on limitless adventures in any scenario. It’s similar to the ending of season 6’s “Into the Wild Green Yonder,” which was reversed promptly in the first episode of season 7.
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Every Other World & Anthology That Futurama’s Multiverse Makes Canon
HowFuturama’s Multiverse Has Already Been Fleshed Out
The cosmic rift connected to the ship graveyard ends uptaking the Planet Express Crew past several realitiesuntil they end up in one functionally similar to their own. They interact heavily with that universe, even killing that timeline’s Fry, Leela, and Bender. This confirms they can actually interact with other realities, such as the ones they encounter while venturing deeper between realities. Some kill off the whole crew or make Bender into the king of Earth. Other worlds seen include Dreamland fromDisenchantment, suggesting that Matt Groening’s Netflix series shares a multiverse (but not a single timeline) withFuturama.
The sight of the 1920’s Golden Age animation parody “Colorama” from season 8’s parody anthology “Reincarnation” outside the window of the Planet Express Ship suggests other similar parodies also exist in this multiverse as possible places the crew could visit to either observe or interact with. This could allow the main crew ofFuturamato meet, fight, andinteract with their more distinct variantslike the anime-inspired versions of the character from “Reincarnation” or the recentTintin-inspiredversions ofFuturama’s charactersfrom season 12’s “The Futurama Mystery Liberry.” It’s an inventive and fun way to tie those non-canon episodes together.
Futurama’s Multiverse Reinforces The Show’s Themes
The World May Change, But The Lesson Doesn’t
One of the things that’s always madeFuturamastand out from other shows is the way it fuses a potentially boundless setting with very specific emotional stories.Futuramacan shift tones and styles with ease, and the limitless scope of their sci-fi future allows for any creative direction. However, the show remains rooted to the core emotional growth of Fry, Leela, Bender, and the rest of the crew. This has carried over into the other realities seen in the anthologies, which still underscore romances like the one between Fry and Leela, regardless of era.This givesFuturamaendless storytelling possibilities.
The Fry and Leela who die in “Otherwise” were the main characters for much of the episode, and their bittersweet decision to face the end together was still a potent and moving moment.Futuramahas proven that it cankeep that core emotional strengtheven when messing around with non-canon stories and settings. This givesFuturama’s possible multiverse shift a very potent potential, as the creatives can send the crew anywhere and into any story, while retaining a consistent core with their characters.Futurama’s multiverse shift is a big twist, but one that could easily play to the show’s strengths.
Futurama
Cast
Futurama is an animated science fiction series that follows Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from late-20th-century New York City. He is accidentally cryogenically frozen for a thousand years and becomes an employee at Planet Express, a delivery service in the retro-futuristic 31st century.
