UPDATE #2: I was able to hear back from Fox again, and was told that Billy West and John DiMaggio did indeed sign on along with everyone else. Futurama is back, folks!

UPDATE: The trades are reporting that all of the cast members, including West and DiMaggio, have signed new deals. As I said earlier, someone from Fox told me directly that only the three actors were confirmed so far, and I haven’t heard anything since then, but the big boys seem to have heard differently, so it all seems legit. Rejoice!

Earlier today, the news that we had all been waiting for was announced: the original voice cast had been signed for the upcoming new 26-episode run of Futurama. The news was initially reported by The Star, but has since changed up a bit: I contacted someone at Fox who confirms that Katey Sagal (Leela Turanga), Maurice LaMarche (Kif Kroker/Hedonismbot/Morbo/Donbot/Clamps), and Tress MacNeille (Mom) had all officially signed on. This of course means that the biggest name of them all, Billy West (Philip J. Fry/Dr. John Zoidberg/Prof. Hubert Farnsworth/Zapp Brannigan), and John DiMaggio (Bender Bending Rodriguez) — who admitted that he was confident all cast would return at Comic Con — had not yet signed on, but it is hoped that an agreement will be reached with the rest of the cast soon.

The news comes after the shocking report recently that the original voice actors with stuck in a financial dispute, and that a casting call had gone out to find new voice actors to take on all of the show’s roles.

If we can take one really great thing away from all of this, it’s that progress is being made. The fact that they got the female lead in Sagal hopefully points to them sealing the deal with West, DiMaggio, and the others. Two big names not mentioned in this mix, are Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad), and also Lauren Tom (Amy Wong). Neither is the biggest cast member, so hopefully those two will also be wrapped up soon, if they’re not already.

Bear with it, folks, it looks like Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, and all of us are well on our way to having our beloved cast back!