Mystery Science Theater 3000 renewed by Netflix for Season 12!
Back in April Netflix dropped a brand-new, 14-episode season of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return, which earned raves from fans and an impressive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, Business Insider ran a recent article outing it as the highest-rated original show on Netflix, based on reviewer and audience data from Rotten Tomatoes! Now, during the annual MST3K Turkey Day Marathon, an announcement was made by creator Joel Hodgson and stars Jonah Ray and Felicia Day that the streaming service has renewed the movie-riffing show for Season 12! Check out the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 renewed announcement video below, MSTie’s!
Hodgson reiterated the renewal in a special message to Kickstarter backers: “‘Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return’ has officially been renewed for another season on Netflix in the ‘not too distant future!’ I wish I had more details to share, but so far, that’s literally everything we’re able to announce – and, of course, I’ll tell you more as soon as I can. But for today, I hope you’ll be as happy as I am to know that our Kickstarter worked: thanks to you, Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be back for even more new episodes.”
RELATED: Creator Joel Hodgson Talks Bringing Mystery Science Theater Back to Life
Created and co-directed by Joel Hodgson, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival stars Jonah Ray (The Nerdist Podcast, Maron) as Jonah Heston, along with his robot sidekicks Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn, Grace and Frankie) and Crow T. Robot (Hampton Yount, The Eric Andre Show), who are forced by Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day, The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) to watch (and hilariously mock) terrible movies onboard the Satellite of Love. Comedian Patton Oswalt (Young Adult) appears as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, Kinga’s henchman.
In late 2015, Hodgson started a highly-successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the new season, which through voracious fan contributions netted $5.7 million, a Kickstarter record. The B-movie titles for the new season were licensed through Shout Factory, the label that also distributes the classic episodes of MST3K on DVD/Blu-ray. Highlights from Season 11 included the bigfoot kids movie Cry Wilderness, 70’s disaster flick Avalanche and the sexy sci-fi romp Star Crash, as well as a guest star roster that included Wil Wheaton, Erin Gray, Neil Patrick Harris, Jerry Seinfeld, Joel McHale and Mark Hamill!
RELATED: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Bots Take on Netflix in 4 New Videos
The original Mystery Science Theater 3000 was created and hosted by comedian Joel Hodgson and produced out of Minnesota from 1988 to 1999 for 197 episodes, each cracking jokes over a different piece of trash cinema from badly-dubbed Japanese Gamera movies to the obscure sleaze masterpiece Manos: The Hands of Fate. Halfway through the show’s run, Hodgson left the show over creative differences and was replaced as host by head writer Michael J. Nelson, who also starred in 1996’s Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.
