Patrick Stewart's Futurama Role Was Nothing Like His Most Famous TV Characters

The acting world is still reeling from the recent passing of television legend Patrick Stewart. He's most closely associated with his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." His career, though, has spanned everything from Shakespeare, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to a rather unusual turn into voice work for cartoon shows. For years, he has voiced Avery Bullock on "American Dad," and Stewart has voiced characters on both "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." But he also popped up on one episode of "Futurama" as a character that was a far cry from most of his other roles.

In the middle of Season 9 of "Futurama," Patrick Stewart makes an appearance as Master of the Hunt in the episode "31st Century Fox." Stewart voices a rather sadistic character who leads a regularly scheduled fox hunt through the woods, but it's later revealed that the fox, the hounds, and the horses involved are all robots. That sends Bender on an anti-robot violence tirade that ends with him turning the tables and hunting and trapping the Master of the Hunt himself.

At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the Master of the Hunt is also a robot as he's dismembered by one of his robot foxes. The character was a far cry from the upstanding and virtuous characters that Stewart spent most of his life playing, which is why the joke works so well in this episode.

Despite beginning his career playing distinguished roles on British TV in "I, Claudius," "Antony and Cleopatra," and "The BBC Television Shakespeare," Patrick Stewart was thrust to the forefront of the pop culture universe when he became Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a role that showcased his gravitas and commanding presence — and one that Stewart was able to reprise in "Star Trek: Picard" later in life. He would carry that same energy into the world of superheroes when he was cast as Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" series of films. That's likely why his turn into comedic voice work was such a hit with fans — because it was the antithesis of all his roles prior.

Before his lone episode on "Futurama," Stewart had several roles on "Family Guy," often voicing Jean-Luc Picard. In 2005, he landed a full-time role on "American Dad" as Avery Bullock, the deputy director of the CIA. While that part sounds serious, it most certainly was not. For over 120 episodes, Bullock would childishly abuse his power, and he would frequently be involved in deviant sexual behavior, even going so far as sleeping with Stan's daughter, Hayley.

Regardless of which cartoon character Stewart was voicing, the crux of the joke always came back to his steady delivery and high British accent, which proved to be the perfect foil to whatever shenanigans his characters would get into.