The Orville’s lifespan has been anything but easy and smooth. After two seasons on Fox, the best Star Trek series that isn’t actually a Star Trek series moved to Hulu, and while that was a positive on the whole, according to creator and star Seth MacFarlane, it’s been over four years since that third season, which is a long time even in the modern streaming era. At the same time, the show has never been officially cancelled, giving fans reason to continue holding out hope that a new season will one day arrive.
At an event for MacFarlane’s other streaming series, Ted, which launches its second season this week (via Peacock subscription), the actor and writer was asked by THR about the show’s fate. The good news is that Season 4 of The Orville is apparently done, at least as far as scripts go. Unfortunately, that doesn’t actually mean the show will definitely be going into production anytime soon. MacFarlane said:
I will be honest with you: Season four is written. It’s just a question of when we have the time to produce it.
As a fan of The Orville, the first sentence there certainly says a lot, which is really good news. Up until now, it really wasn’t clear if there was really a chance of another season of The Orville or not. While some Orville cast members indicated production was expected to start already, it never actually did. It was far from clear what was causing the holdup, and fans weren't even fully sure if there was a creative direction to move in.
Now it’s clear that Hulu wants the show, and MacFarlane has written the episodes that will make up the season. That would normally indicate a TV show is in the early stages of production. Unfortunately, Seth MacFarlane still has one problem: himself. He fully admits that he is the bottleneck. He simply has so many projects going right now that he doesn’t know when he’ll have the time to focus on this one. He explained:
The 10 scripts are done. I’m the problem. It’s [a matter of] when I can make that my year, with all the other stuff we have in the works. But we can hit the ground running when it happens.
As much as it's wonderful to hear that The Orville’s new season is written, this follow-up does not give one confidence. If there was any sort of a plan for when the show might start filming, he’d likely say so, which means that while the show has scripts, those scripts aren’t going in front of cameras anytime soon.
At the same time, it’s difficult to imagine that 10 completed scripts will simply never be filmed. As of now, The Orville is getting another season, and that clarification is good news. I just hope we don’t have to wait another four years for it.
