Again in 2022, io9 wrote a put up strongly encouraging, perhaps even begging, Hulu to renew The Orville. The plea got here within the wake of The Orville: New Horizons, the present’s long-awaited first season on Hulu (and later, Disney+) after two seasons on Fox.
There have been some glints of hope over time since, together with encouraging words from Orville creator and star Seth MacFarlane, and a few latest (if unsubstantiated) discuss of an upcoming fourth season from star Scott Grimes.
There’s additionally an official Information to the Orville written by collection author and co-executive producer Andre Bormanis releasing subsequent month, with the choice for a snazzy deluxe edition that comes with a poster exploring the titular ship intimately and an array of Planetary Union patches. That’s not one thing you supply except you already know there are diehard followers keen so as to add to their Orville collections.
However as for any sort of official announcement—nicely, there’s been precisely nothing. Hulu is now totally part of Disney+, which has loads of its personal space-opera motion due to all of the Star Wars content material; The Orville really pre-dates The Mandalorian, Disney+’s first live-action Star Wars collection, by two years, and it is probably not trying to spend money on one other sci-fi universe.
However the property The Orville is most often compared to is Star Trek; lest we neglect, The Orville and Star Trek: Discovery, then the primary new Trek collection in over a decade, each premiered in September 2017. Discovery signed off earlier this yr after 5 seasons, however there are a number of different Trek tasks coming quickly to Paramount+, together with new seasons of the exhibits which can be perhaps most like The Orville: the animated Decrease Decks, and The Unique Collection prequel Unusual New Worlds. There’s additionally, as was lately reported, a live-action Star Trek comedy within the works.
However whereas The Orville might share some widespread DNA with Star Trek—the uniforms, the guiding rules of exploration and science, the quirky crew, the holodeck, these Klingon-like Krill—what began off feeling like a Trek homage quickly carved out its personal nook of sci-fi storytelling. As io9 identified again in 2022, The Orville provided a mix of high-stakes motion, distinctive characters (together with its core solid in addition to intriguing, extremely detailed alien civilizations), technical prowess (the particular results, artwork course, and music have been at all times top-notch), and—it is a Seth MacFarlane present in spite of everything—a well-honed humorousness. Additionally: it had some killer visitor stars. You don’t see Dolly Parton in Star Trek or Star Wars, do you?
Whereas season three of The Orville ended with a reasonably basic happy-ending situation—the marriage of two characters lastly cementing their unlikely however simple human-robot relationship—it nonetheless appears like there’s extra story to inform. Fan demand is there, and from what MacFarlane has stated in interviews alongside the best way, there’s nonetheless hope.
In early 2024, he told the Wrap that “there isn’t any official dying certificates for The Orville. It’s nonetheless with us”—one thing that may imply more comic books, however hopefully factors to one thing extra. And it doesn’t need to be on Hulu; the shift from Fox for New Horizons might have taken awhile, however there was no drop in high quality when the brand new episodes lastly arrived.
If there’s any sort of Orville announcement, by Avis, we’ll definitely convey you extra as and once we study it. Within the meantime, you’ll be able to see what all of the intergalactic fuss is about by streaming the primary three seasons on Disney+.
Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing it’s worthwhile to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.
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