For a while it seemed that the revival of animated series Futurama would not feature the vocal talents of original voice actor John DiMaggio, who has voiced the character of Bender in all previous iterations of the show. However, after some behind the scenes wrangling everything turned out right and the voice of Bender will be back in the show when it returns on Hulu. Just to show how much love there is out there for both the character and the actor who plays him, DiMaggio shared some images on Twitter of some Bender artwork that had been created on the beach of the resort he is staying at in Mexico.

Futurama made its debut back in 1999 as the creation of The Simpsons mastermind Matt Groening. The series tells the story of 20th century delivery boy Fry, who inadvertently ends up in the year 3000. As Fry’s friend and colleague, Bender is one the best loved characters on the show, a deeply flawed character who loves gambling, drinking, smoking and anything else that he really shouldn’t. When it was announced that the show would be making another comeback to produce its first new episodes since 2013, it took a long while for DiMaggio to finally agree to return with the rest of the cast, making fans of the show very happy in the process.

The new images shared by DiMaggio, the actor poses next to the huge drawing of Bender in the sand, which has the words, “Esperanza Welcomes You, El Jefe” written above it. In his post, DiMaggio wrote, “Oh hi, just a much needed vacation and this happens…big up the Esperanza staff. Above and beyond.”

Related: The Best Futurama Episodes, Ranked

Futurama Without John DiMaggio Was Never Going To Happen

Futurama Bender and son
Comedy Central

The initial announcement of Futurama’s return came early last month, and while fans were delighted to hear the news that 21 new episodes of the series would be coming to Hulu in 2023, they were quick to notice that DiMaggio’s name was missing from the list of cast members who would be reprising their roles in the revival.

A couple of days later DiMaggio took to his Twitter account to explain exactly why he was not, at the time, returning to the show, and it all came down his belief that voice actors were being massively underpaid for their work. This seemingly led to a stand-off between producers and the actor, with other voice artists such as Marvel and DC voice over actress Tara Strong come out in support for DiMaggio’s opinion that voice actors were largely made to feel that there were replaceable and could be paid a fraction of the cost of on-screen actors.

While it may have seemed for a while that Futurama could be going ahead without their original Bender star, the huge amount of fan support for the actor suggested that they would do whatever they had to in order to get DiMaggio on board and avoid a viewer revolt if they attempted to replace him. For that reason, the outcome was always heading towards the one ended up with, which is DiMaggio back in his rightful place alongside the likes of Billy West as Fry and Katey Sagal as Leela. Production on the series is set to commence this year with an aim of premiering early in 2023.