John DiMaggio Had A Star Wars Legend In His Corner During His Futurama Pay Dispute
In the 31st century of Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's "Futurama," Christmas has evolved. Instead of fir trees, for instance, people decorate palm trees. Gift exchanges are still common, but families don't merely gather together to enjoy the warmth of the holiday season. They gather together because a rogue robotic Santa Claus, judging the entire world to be "naughty," annually flies around the Earth murdering anyone outdoors with guns and missiles. Families gather out of fear. Robot Santa was initially played by John Goodman, but the role was taken over by John DiMaggio after his first appearance.
Eventually joining Robot Santa in his holiday shenanigans was the Kwanzaa-Bot played by late rapper Coolio, and, with the release of "Bender's Big Score" in 2007, the Chanukah Zombie played by Mark Hamill. The machinations of the film's plot had all of Earth's denizens stranded at the North Pole of Neptune, evicted by nudist aliens who scammed the entire planet out of its leadership's hands. In order to wrest control of Earth back from the nudists, Robot Santa, Kwanzaa-Bot, and the Chanukah Zombie gather their military forces for a counterstrike. To get into the spirit, the trinity sang about their preparations.
DiMaggio and Hamill clearly came to respect one another as professional voice actors through "Futurama." By coincidence, both actors also played the Joker on separate animated Batman shows.
When Hulu was poised to resurrect "Futurama" for a third time in 2022, DiMaggio famously butted heads with the studio, hoping to secure a salary that befitted his association with the series. For a moment, it seemed that DiMaggio might not return to play Bender, the alcoholic robot. According to a 2022 SYFY WIRE article, however, DiMaggio had Hamill and other voice actors at his back.
Robot Santa and Chanukah Zombie stand up for each other
The conflict between Hulu and John DiMaggio raged long enough to get fans angry. DiMaggio has been a key ingredient to the success of "Futurama" since its start in 1999, and the idea of Hulu letting him go over a pay dispute had many fans on the actor's side. Everyone was angry. Eventually, the dispute was solved, although DiMaggio later revealed that he didn't get any extra money. It would also later be revealed that Hulu was already preparing for when DiMaggio walked away altogether. It seems that the studio intended to hire a rotating cast of guest actors to play Bender, one for each episode.
No one was on Hulu's side in this mishegoss, least of all Mark Hamill, star of a little-known 1977 sci-fi film called "Star Wars" and an experienced voice actor going back to the early 1990s. During the Hulu/DiMaggio conflict, Hamill tweeted his support, saying that he would certainly not be auditioning to replace his one-time "Futurama" co-star.
The SYFY WIRE article mentioned above noted that other luminaries of the voice-acting scene stood in solidarity as well. Tara Strong noted that "voice actors, loved by fans, are treated insanely unfairly by Hollywood. They love making us feel replaceable & get away with paying a fraction of what on-camera celebs make." Charlie Adler called DiMaggio "irreplaceable," and comedian James Adomian pointed out Hulu's tacky 2022 audition notice ... and how sour it made everyone feel.
"Everyone in the industry saw the audition notice go out two weeks ago for Bender, asking for a voice match for John DiMaggio," Adomian said. "Seeing it, I said out loud 'Shove it!' in my best Bender voice, which will always just be a fanboy cosplay of John DiMaggio."
DiMaggio eventually returned. There is only one Bender.