Television

New 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' Is Coming To Netflix In The Not-Too-Distant Future

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Netflix
By Ethan Anderton

Last fall came the wonderful news that the movie-mocking comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 was getting a revival. Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series and with creator Joel Hodgson they took the project to Kickstarter for fans to help support the return of the show. And the good news is fans will easily be able to watch it nearly anywhere.

Over the weekend at Comic-Con, Netflix announced they would be the official home of the new Mystery Science Theater 3000. So now you can get your movie mockery from your couch, on your iPad or even on your phone in the not too distant future. Find out more about the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Netflix deal after the jump.

Here's how the news was officially announced over the weekend:

While Hodgson would have been satisfied with $2 million raised to make three new feature-length episodes, the crowdfunding campaign ended up raising $5.7 million. That means Netflix will be getting a full season of 14 episodes from Mystery Science Theater 3000. If the show performs well enough on Netflix, maybe they'll just flat out pay for more episodes themselves so a Kickstarter doesn't need to be done again.

Joel Hodgson is writing and involved in all facets of the revival's production, and the show will feature the return of Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Mary Jo Pehl from the original series, but the main cast will feature some new talent. Comedian and Nerdist podcast host Jonah Ray is playing the new lead human role with fellow comedians Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn roviding the voices for Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot respectively. In addition, Patton Oswalt will be playing TV's Son of TV's Frank and Felicia Day is playing mad scientist Kinga Forrester, daughter of one of the show's original villains, Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu).

As for the writing department, some of the names woring on the show include Community creator Dan Harmon, Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, Rob Schrab (The LEGO Movie Sequel), Nell Scovell (The Muppet Show), Ernest Cline (Ready Player One), Pat Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind), comedian Dana Gould, musical act Paul & Storm, and Robert Lopez (the EGOT-winning songwriter behind Frozen). They'll all be working under Elliott Kalan, a writer from The Daily Show, as head writer.

And if you need anymore reason to tune in to the show Mark Hamill, Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, Joel McHale, Bill Hader and Jerry Seinfeld, will all be making cameo appearances on the show at some point.

The new Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be made available on Netflix in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, though no specific release date has been pegged just yet. However, there was no mention of whether or not the old episodes of the series would ever come to the streaming service.

Considering the fact that the rights of the movies and shorts mocked on the show was an issue that held back certain home video releases of episodes, bringing old episodes to Netflix may not be so easy. But Hodgson has previously indicated that Shout! Factory had cleared the rights for 100 movies from old episodes. So perhaps Netflix will have a library of MST3K episodes at their disposal after all. Don't forget, in 2014, 80 episodes were made available for purchase on Vimeo, so keep your fingers crossed for these old episodes to be made available on Netflix too.

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