The Orville: Seth MacFarlane On Whether The Show Is Really Being Cancelled
Seth MacFarlane, as creator, executive producer, and star of The Orville, has finally broken his silenc
Seth MacFarlane, as creator, executive producer, and star of The Orville, has finally broken his silence about the upcoming season 3 and has promised fans that season 3 is on its way while also explaining exactly what he loves most about The Orville. He also addressed those rumors that the show will be cancelled before it gets to season 4.
It happened when Seth MacFarlane was recently a guest on an Instagram conversation with his fellow Orville co-star Jessica Szohr and was fan-asked about his favorite character. Wisely, MacFarlane side-stepped the question, instead focusing on his entire cast.
Of The Orville and its cast MacFarlane said, “I love them all. It’s one of the things I love most about the show. I’m a big fan of ensemble pieces, particularly with television. What I love about the show and about the characters it that I can pick any one of the characters and write a story about them that week. It can be a Bortus story one week, it can be a Kelly story, it can be a Talla story. It’s wide open, and I think allows for a lot of longevity.”
His full conversation with Szohr can be seen below.
Now the question becomes longevity. Rumor has it that The Orville is only going to around long enough for a season 3 and nothing more. Those rumors have reached MacFarlane.
Regarding whether The Orville will be cancelled after season 3 Seth says, “There has been a lot of speculation online: Will the show come back? The show is still a huge priority for me and for the cast and everyone else. We do have a season to finish, and we are going to finish it.”
Notice how he didn’t promising anything for The Orville beyond season 3. As for anything after that, no one knows. Fans can be happy that there will be a season 3 and they can also be hopeful that it finds a home on Hulu, offering more than just a season 3.
THE ORVILLE’S MOVE FROM FOX TO HULU
Seth Macfarlane announced last year that The Orville would be jumping from Fox to Hulu. At the time he said: “The Orville has been a labor of love for me, and there are two companies which have supported that vision in a big way: 20th Century Fox Television, where I’ve had a deal since the start of my career, and Fox Broadcasting Company, now Fox Entertainment, which has been my broadcast home for over 20 years,”
But Seth also explained what prompted the move, based on how The Orville has evolved and its impending production timeframe. “My friends at the network understood what I was trying to do with this series, and they’ve done a spectacular job of marketing, launching and programming it for these past two seasons. But as the show has evolved and become more ambitious production-wise, I determined that I would not be able to deliver episodes until 2020, which would be challenging for the network,”
MacFarlane continued discussing The Orville‘s third season: “So we began to discuss how best to support the third season in a way that worked for the show. It’s exactly this kind of willingness to accommodate a show’s creative needs that’s made me want to stick around for so long. I am hugely indebted to Charlie Collier and Fox Entertainment for their generosity and look forward to developing future projects there. And to my new friends at Hulu, I look forward to our new partnership exploring the galaxy together.”
What was important to The Orville and its move to Hulu was the fact that MacFarlane had more flexibility when it got to episode orders (the number of episodes), running times of each episode (right now it is an hour-long drama series), and the series production schedules. With as many plates as MacFarlane is juggling, having more control over his The Orville production schedule was of key concern. Hulu offers all these perks for him.
When The Orville first aired, MacFarlane couldn’t understand why the series was critically panned. He wasn’t surprised though, given the reactions he had received in the past. “It happens almost every time I release a movie or a TV show,” he said via Forbes. “I’ve grown to expect it from critics and so it’s not something that really fazes me anymore.”
And critically panned it was. Perhaps there were too many preconceived notions about The Orville. It was, after all, leaning heavily on the Star Trek motif, which Macfarlane is an admitted fan. But since that time of early dislike, the show has picked up a solid fan base, even drastically changing the minds of the critics who slammed him. The first season pulled in a low Rotten Tomatoes 30% critic consensus, while season 2 of The Orville jumped dramatically to a 100% favoring. Good news and numbers for MacFarlane and cast going in to season 3.
