At first glance, Disenchantment and Futurama couldn't be more different (overbites aside). Although both shows were devised by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Disenchantment takes place in medieval times and Futurama is set in the distant future, so there's no way they could ever be connected, right?
Season one of Disenchantment hid some Futurama Easter eggs in plain sight, including a wig that resembled the hair of Philip J Fry, but that's just par for the course in Groening's work.
However, one scene in particular took things a step further, by suggesting that Disenchantment may actually take place in Futurama's past. In the season one finale, eagle-eyed fans noticed an image of Fry, Bender and the Professor pop up briefly when Luci showed King Zog the past using a magical ball.
The implication here was that characters from Futurama used their time machine to travel back, thereby confirming that the two shows exist in the same universe.
This led plenty of fans to try and figure out some kind of timeline linking them both together, but based on what happened in season one, it's still easy enough to dismiss this brief cameo as a fun sight gag and nothing more.
However, the new batch of Disenchantment episodes actually lean even harder into a potential connection than ever before, confirming that the two shows are actually linked narratively beyond simple Easter eggs.
Once again, Disenchantment season two plays around with some Futurama references for fun, most notably when King Zog reinterprets Bender's catchphrase with the line: "Bite my shiny metal axe!"
However, as the Futurama Easter eggs continue to pile up, it's become harder and harder to ignore the possibility that these two shows really could exist in the same universe together.
Most of the evidence for this can be found in the ninth episode of Disenchantment season two, when Bean follows an airship pilot named Sky Gunderson to Steamland.
The name Gunderson will probably ring a bell or two for animation fans, who might recognise it as Gil's last name from The Simpsons. On top of that, 'The Futurama Holiday Spectacular' was also sponsored by Gunderson's Unshelled Nuts.
Sky Gunderson himself looks like a much younger version of Professor Farnsworth, complete with his thick glasses and the red hair he sported before going bald. His business, Gunderson Airships, also happens to be located on Farnsworth Boulevard and Sky even owns a model of the Planet Express ship that Professor Farnsworth designed.
Upon closer inspection, it seems that Gunderson and Farnsworth share a strange personality kink too. Upon arriving in Steamland, Bean opens a drawer in Sky's ship to discover various lengths of wire that are identical to the wires Farnsworth revealed in his own drawer in the very first Futurama episode.
More than just mere sight gags, these numerous connections between Gunderson and Farnsworth hint that the two characters are linked in a more meaningful way than typical Easter eggs might suggest.
While it's possible that Professor Farnsworth might have meddled with time and established these links somehow, it's more likely that he's actually related to Gunderson.
Some fans believe that Disenchantment is set in the future, where civilisation crumbles before being rebuilt using Medieval stylings, but still before the time of Futurama. If so, then Gunderson might be a not-too-distant ancestor of Professor Farnsworth, which would explain why they share such similar looks and traits.
Alternatively, he could also be a descendant of Farnsworth from an even more distant future, who kept the same drawer intact.
Or maybe the same animators work on both shows and they just thought it might be fun to pay homage to Futurama?
Either way, there's plenty more going on with Disenchantment than meets the eye, and with all those strangely anachronistic references in season two, we'd bet our shiny metal ass that Futurama will play an even more important role in the show's future.
Disenchantment is now available to watch on Netflix.
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