Through two seasons, The Orville is the little Star Trek homage that could. Like its (unofficial) Trek forefathers, The Orville has built up a small but formidable fanbase. Fox has rewarded that fanbase by ordering The Orville Season 3…but it won’t air on Fox.
Orville creator Seth MacFarlane announced during San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that the show will be moving to Hulu for Season 3. That’s right. The Orville is no longer a Fox show. It is now a Hulu original. With Hulu itself being exclusively owned by Disney, just as the show’s former network home of Fox, the shoe apparently fits.
Here is everything else we know about The Orville season 3.
The Orville Season 3 Release Date
It’s not clear when The Orville season 3 premiere will happen…particularly with the move to Hulu. The first season arrived in the traditional September premiere window, while season two was held for midseason and didn’t arrive until nearly January. Considering that this is an intricate, expensive show to produce, The Orville season 3 might be a better fit for midseason.
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As Seth MacFarlane said of the move to Hulu:
“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. 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. 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.”
The Orville Season 3 Cast
In the latest news on The Orville‘s third season, the main cast is getting a new addition!
Anne Winters is joining The Orville Season 3 as a series regular, reported Deadline, which recently revealed that she will play a character named Charly Burke. Winters, an American actress, is coming off TV runs on ABC’s Grand Hotel, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and Go90’s Zac and Mia. She also fielded runs on FX’s Tyrant, ABC’s Wicked City and Freeform’s The Fosters, along with recent movie appearances in Night School and Mom and Dad.
The Orville was created by Family Guy’s Seth McFarlane, who will continue on as star of the show alongside Adrianna Palicki, Penny Johnson Jerald, Scott Grimes, and many others. The Orville Season 2 saw the departure of Halston Sage, who played Lt. Alara Kitan, from the cast, replaced by Jessica Szohr’s Lt. Talla Keyali.
The Orville Season 3 Episodes
Orville creator Seth MacFarlane revealed at NYCC 2019 that the show’s episode order would be slightly smaller for season 3. The Orville season 3 will receive only 11 episodes on Hulu. The good news, however, is that those episodes stand to get a little longer, expanded by 10 minutes or more in some cases, according to a report from Cinemablend.
The Orville Season 3 Plot
Like many finales in the modern TV landscape, The Orville Season 2 finale could have served as both a fitting season or series end. There was a conclusive finish to the show’s brief time travel arc and should the show get a third season, it will likely get right back to the story of The Orville and its diverse crew. Thankfully, it wasn’t, and their adventures will continue.
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Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.