Bleeding Cool’s speculations on the future of The Orville provoke a response from creator Seth MacFarlane.
Updated 23/12/22: The future of The Orville, Seth MacFarlane’s comedy/90s Star Trek homage/decent science fiction show is still up in the air. Despite season 3 completing its landing on Disney+ back in August, the streamer has been silent on the future of the show (if any).
Yesterday, this fact prompted Bleeding Cool‘s television editor Ray Flook to wonder why? “The Orville: After Nearly 5 Months, Did Disney Forget About Season 4?” asks plenty of questions and offers few answers. Instead, it’s a decent pitch for the return of the show; Flook praises its realistic take on the future, terrific ensemble cast and top production values. As he says, and we’d agree, each episode in the latest series has the look and feel of a mini movie.
While it might be fair to expect a positive fan response to such a piece, we’re betting that Flook didn’t anticipate a response from the show’s creator/writer/director/executive producer (and star) Seth MacFarlane. Retweeting the piece, Macfarlane confirms he’s keen for more too…
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) December 22, 2022
Given that response, it would appear our renewal hopes are not forlorn. In the meantime, healthy numbers of multiple viewings on Disney+ and enthusiastic fan chatter online certainly won’t hurt!
Original article continues…
The Orville – Seth MacFarlane would love to do a season 4
With all of New Horizons now released, Seth McFarlane talks about the future of The Orville.
It was a protracted, network-hopping, Covid-delayed journey, but The Orville’s third season has finally all been released.
Dubbed The Orville: New Horizons at its new home on US streamer Hulu, the show is now available on Disney+ too. That’s in the US of course, as it’s already on Disney+ in the UK and elsewhere.
The show began as an affectionate parody of ST:TNG and its era, but soon grew into something more distinct. Eschewing the harder edged angle of much modern sci-fi, The Orville isn’t afraid to blend the comic and the dramatic.
Seth MacFarlane is the show’s creator and star, as well as its writer and director on occasion too. In a recent interview with Grant Hermanns of Screen Rant, he talked about the frustrations of making the show for a linear channel (FX was its original home for seasons 1 and 2):
“A network drama or a network comedy kind of has the same rhythm to it, no matter what you’re watching, because it has to fit into this pocket of exactly 22 minutes or exactly 43 minutes. That certainly was something that I just got weary of after a while. I would sit in editing, and I would have a show that was maybe 51 minutes. It was working great, and I was happy with everything, and I was happy with the moments. Then somehow I had to cut three minutes out of the show – and it’s frustrating, because there are scenes in season two that, particularly, should have breathed a little more and they couldn’t. Because you had to make room for the fabric softener commercial.”
However, the shift to Hulu brought both freedom and support:
“From a creative standpoint, this season for Hulu has been immensely more fulfilling for that reason.”
“The marketing and promotional campaign that Hulu put together feels like a movie to me, I was shocked, and still am, at how involved that was. We delivered 10 movies, and they promoted them as such, and it was great to see how well thought out that was. But yeah, that was a big difference, really, was a lack of time constraints. And that can have a profound impact on the flavor of the show.”
Season 4?
MacFarlane also discussed the potential for a further season of stories:
“There’s certainly the hope from us, from [executive producer] Brannon Braga and myself and everyone involved with the show. We would all love to do a season 4.”
And the support coming from Hulu and Disney too:
“…I have sensed a real groundswell of support from within the Hulu branch and the Disney branch. Of course, it’s a business, so the show has to be something that justifies its own existence and, at the end of the day, that’s really going to be what determines a season 4. But the folks at Hulu and Disney have sure as hell given us the best possible chance of that happening, so it’s really all up to the audience now.”
You can catch all three seasons of The Orville on Disney+ and the full interview is up at Screen Rant.