Recasting ploy

On 17 July, 2009, 20th Century Fox Television announced it would open audition to recast the cast for Futuramas upcoming sixth production season'.

Original dispute
When Futurama official revived for its sixth production season, it was assumed that the voice actors of the show were also anticipated for a return and a contract had already been signed.

Announcement
Before 20th Century Fox Television's official statement, Phil LaMarr posted an audition call for some of the main characters on Futurama as well as Kif Kroker and Zapp Brannigan, the call also included links to videos of characters so actors could get an impression of the voice. This call was later broken by Forces of Geek.

Moments later, the story was confirmed by 20th Century Fox Television in a statement:

"We love the 'Futurama' voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands. While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David’s brilliantly subversive characters."

Maurice LaMarche and John DiMaggio later confirmed the story on their Facebook pages as well.

Immediate reaction and speculation
The immediate fan reaction to the news was part denial and part suggesting it might be the other thing. Analysis quickly spread out claiming that the whole thing was purely was a negotiation ploy by 20th Century Fox Television in order to force the voice actors to cave in for a lower salary. Immediate reactions elsewhere included that it being a publicity stunt to stir up more talk about Futurama.

In addition, Variety reported that the actors had asked for 75,000 dollars per episode in salary demands, something other people picked up, but it was a figure that at the time was neither confirmed by 20th Century Fox Television or the voice actor's reps.

Dis-invitation
A Futurama panel was scheduled for the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on 25 July, 2009. Including show runners, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, voice actors John DiMaggio, Billy West, Katey Sagal, Maurice LaMarche and ? was also scheduled to be there. However, on 22 July 20th Century Fox Television officially "dis-invited" the voice actors to participate at the panel.

The panel
The panel began without the actors present, and an announcement by the Hypnotoad telling people to ignore their lack of presence. Cohen and Groening then walked upon stage to explain that they were very concerned about the situation, and hoping it would be sorted out soon, but could however not speak on the matter for negotiation reasons.

While the panel itself revealed no new information except for Cohen's and Groening's support for the voice actors and the obvious plot points coming up, the structure of the panel did put an end to the publicity stunt theories, which would have required some sort of announcement at the panel by 20th Century Fox Television. Something which did not come.