The Orville’s Adrianne Palicki On If Season 4 Is Happening
Adrienne Palicki is willing to come back for The Orville Season 4.
Season 3 of Seth MacFarlane’s Star Trek-inspired TV series The Orville ended with an episode that could be an effective series finale, ending with a wedding ceremony and the titular spaceship flying off through space as Gordon Malloy sings a song called ‘Welcome to the Human Race.” However, there’s still a chance that the well-received Hulu series could get renewed for a fourth season. Den of Geek reports that Adrianne Palicki, who plays Commander Kelly Grayson, is definitely on board for The Orville Season 4 if it happens.
Palicki, who has played Commander Grayson in all 36 episodes of The Orville, can only confirm that there have “been talks” about a possible Season 4. However, she does have hopes for what her character might get up to in the fourth season — she laughingly joked that Commander Grayson could take over as captain since she “pretty much is anyway.” According to her, McFarlane “isn’t completely” opposed to that idea.
Unfortunately for those who want more concrete news about the fate of The Orville, there has not been any official word from Fox, Hulu, or the show’s creators about whether Season 4 will happen. However, Season 3 did well on streaming, becoming Hulu’s second-most-viewed show behind Steve Martin’s Only Murders in the Building.
This non-answer about The Orville season 4 comes shortly after Seth MacFarlane himself admitted that he wasn’t sure whether there would be another season. According to MacFarlane, the TV industry is in the middle of a “time of upheaval,” making it hard for him to guess what the fate of his show will be. He did, however, state that he is “cautiously optimistic” about
The Orville, which has been favorably compared to the original Star Trek and its much-beloved follow-up series Star Trek: The Next Generation, had previously struggled to attract viewers. When Season 2 aired on Fox in 2019, it only averaged about 3.2 million viewers per episode, a significant drop from Season 1. The result was that The Orville was taken off the air and became a Hulu exclusive for Season 3, a fate that Season 4 might share, if it ever gets made.
In the meantime, the official Star Trek: The Next Generation follow-up series, Star Trek: Picard, is proving that there’s definitely an audience out there for that specific brand of science fiction. The series’ final season appeared in the Nielsen streaming charts for the first time for the week of March 13-19, when episode 5, “Imposter,” aired. The popularity of the Paramount+ series may convince Fox and Hulu to greenlight The Orville season 4.
Regardless of whether The Orville gets a season 4, there’s still plenty of sci-fi coming out trekkies and other lovers of the genre. Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is airing on June 15, 2023, and Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 will premiere in early 2024. There are also rumors that a spinoff for Star Trek: Picard, titled Star Trek: Legacy, might end up getting made.
