Who Built the Robot Devil? 'Futurama' Showrunner David X. Cohen Weighs in on a Popular Fan Theory
Overview & Key Takeaways
Fans of Futurama have long wondered who built Beelzebot, the Robot Devil. The show's co-developer and showrunner, David X. Cohen, weighs in.
Back in 1999, during Futurama’s season 1 episode “Hell is Other Robots,” the world met Beelzebot, better known as “The Robot Devil.” Voiced by Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson on The Simpsons), the musically-inclined Robot Devil presides over robot Hell. But, unlike human Hell, Robot Hell doesn’t reside in some other plane of existence. Instead, it’s housed below a dilapidated amusement park in New Jersey.
Since that first appearance, the Robot Devil has become a recurring villain throughout the show’s many different revivals. He even starred in one of the show’s several series finales, season 4’s “The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings.”
Despite his multiple appearances, however, the Robot Devil is still the source of questions in the Futurama fandom, with the biggest query being “Who built the Robot Devil?" As the Futurama wiki, “The Infosphere,” explains, “It is unknown when or why the Robot Devil was built. He was likely built before or around 2275, when the Fairness in Hell Act was signed into law.” (The Fairness in Hell Act says that robots can be rescued from Hell if one of the robot’s friends can best the Robot Devil in a fiddling competition). The origins of the Robot Devil have also been discussed in depth on the Futurama subreddit, with people theorizing that robot soap opera actor Calculon built him. Or even more likely, he was built by the business tycoon Mom, who built most, but not all, of Earth's robot population.
Recently, Futurama co-developer and showrunner David X. Cohen sat down with Polygon to discuss the current season of Futurama, and I asked him if he could shed any light on the Robot Devil’s mysterious origins.
Who built the Robot Devil?
Image: 20th Century Television
“We have this debate in the writers' room a lot, like, why did they build a robot whose purpose seems to be to murder people?” said Cohen, “Like Roberto, the stabbing robot — whose idea was that?”
Pondering the question, Cohen went on to say, “We've done a little bit of robot evolution in the history of the show as well, and I think it's possible that some robots broke free of the confines of their programming and became criminals, devils, or whatever they chose to be.”
This means that the Robot Devil could have been a regular robot off the assembly line, but at some point defied his programming and became the Robot Devil all on his own. The answer is far from conclusive, but I will say that Cohen made clear he’s never been asked the question before, and he seemed intrigued by the premise. So perhaps, in some future Futurama revival, the fans will finally get an answer.
Futurama is streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus.
