Fans of The Orville may have some good news. Creator and star Seth MacFarlane recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s writing team has 10 scripts ready to go for a potential season four. The popular science-fiction/comedy has not had new episodes in four years.
“I will be honest with you: Season four is written,” MacFarlane said. “It’s just a question of when we have the time to produce it.”
A Homage That Became an Alternative
The Orville premiered on Fox in 2017 as a satirical homage to Star Trek. In 2022, the show was moved to Hulu for its third season. MacFarlane played Capt. Ed Mercer. The third season cast was rounded out by Adrianne Palicki, Penny Johnson Jerald, Scott Grimes, Peter Macon, Jessica Szohr, and Anne Winters.
At the time, some viewers expressed frustration with the direction of the Star Trek franchise. The previous year’s Star Trek Beyond had disappointed at the box office, and there had not been a new Trek TV series in over a decade. While Star Trek: Discovery launched on Paramount+ in the fall of 2017, the show was criticized by some fans for its mature themes and dark tone. The Orville, with its bright colors and episodic format, seemed to many to be the spiritual successor to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The bridge of The Orville – The Orville, YouTube
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New Star Trek shows have remained in regular production. However, the latest series, Starfleet Academy, has become a point of ridicule with YouTube critics and Nielsen tracking indicates low viewership. A fourth season of The Orville with MacFarlane in the lead may be appealing to fans once seeking something in the traditional Star Trek mold.
Scripts Are Done — Timing Is the Hurdle
MacFarlane confirmed to THR that Hulu is ready to move forward on a fourth season of The Orville. “The 10 scripts are done,” he said. “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.”
Talk of a fourth season has been circulating since the show went off the air. At the time, MacFarlane said that he and his co-stars wanted to continue the series. However, he noted that cast contracts had expired after season three.
Seth Macfarlane on The Graham Norton Show – YouTube, BBC
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The cost of production was also a potential issue. “It’s not an inexpensive show to produce. It requires an ambitious budget,” he said. “But the flip side of that is, it’s no more ambitious than half the other streaming shows on television. It really is going to depend on audience response, on whether the show gets discovered.”
Pursuit Course
As the current direction of Star Trek continues to be a point of contention between creators and fans, MacFarlane’s comments come at an interesting time. Should The Orville return for season four, it may provide an alternative for an audience that has grown weary of the debate.
The crew of The Orville – The Orville, YouTube
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The series built its following on a tone reminiscent of late-’80s and ’90s Trek—earnest, episodic and philosophically driven rather than serialized and dark. If audience appetite continues shifting toward that style of storytelling, Hulu may find that The Orville is not just ready—but arriving at precisely the right cultural moment.
Would you look forward to a fourth season of The Orville? Let us know in the comments!
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