Bob's Burgers creator promises to improve gender balance in show's voice cast

At the show’s Friday Comic-Con panel, the creator of Fox’s animated show Bob’s Burgers said he wanted to have a better gender balance within the presently male-dominated voice cast and promised to improve on providing roles for women.

“We’re not proud of taking jobs from women,” shared Loren Bouchard. “That’s not what we want as slug line under Bob’s to be – ‘Taking jobs from women since 2010.'”

Bob’s Burgers features H. Jon Benjamin as Belcher patriarch Bob and John Roberts as his vivacious wife Linda, while Dan Mintz plays the awkward teen Tina and Eugene Mirman voices quirky son Gene. Kristen Schaal is the only woman in the lead voice cast and plays Louise, the youngest Belcher and trouble-maker extraordinaire.

While Roberts and Mintz will continue to play their respective characters, Bouchard added, “I don’t know what to do except to strive to do better… we have to have balance.”

The show does have recurring characters voiced by women, such as Sarah Silverman and her sister Laura as Pesto twins Ollie and Andy, while Jenny Slate plays Tina’s school frenemy Tammy. Bouchard said comedians Nicole Byer and Brooke Dillman will also be in the upcoming season.

Attendees at the Bob’s Burgers panel on Friday were treated to five clips from the ninth season, including a scene from the premiere in which Tina attends the open auditions for her favorite boy band Boyz4Now as they try to replace lead singer Boo Boo, who went solo. The clip shows one of her fantasies, this time with two boys, voiced by Book of Mormon costars Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, in space as they sing to her.

Bouchard also showed clips from the upcoming Thanksgiving episode, in which the Belchers embark on a car chase to save a turkey that was meant to be pardoned, and the Halloween episode in which Gene dresses as ‘Andre 3000 the Giant,’ Tina as a ‘Nun of your business’ and Louise as a dragon tattoo.

Bouchard also reminded people of the Bob’s Burgers movie, slated for July 2020, which he said is still on track. While he didn’t reveal any plot details, he did answer a fan question to say that the movie will reunite Louise with her beloved nightlight Kuchi Kopi in her dreams for another trippy adventure.