After a long delay for COVID reasons, Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi series “The Orville” finally returned last Summer with a third season that shifted from FOX to Hulu and saw an impressive budget increase to match.
Though there’s a passionate fanbase for the series, the show is expensive to produce and isn’t either a ratings or awards juggernaut even if it is critically well-regard. Thus many have been patiently waiting on word of a fourth season.
That includes cast member Penny Johnson Jerald who posted a week ago a video on Twitter wondering what’s going on. Well, we now have an answer, and it’s… not much.
TVLine reporter Matt Mitovich managed to speak with Craig Erwich, President of ABC Entertainment and Hulu & Disney Branded Television Streaming Originals, and asked him about the possibility of “The Orville” season 4. He responded:
“We don’t have anything to share right now. It’s a great show, and I know that the fans loved having it back in their lives. And Seth [MacFarlane] did a great job, uniquely as he can, in front of and behind the camera. But we don’t have anything to share right now.”
The good thing is it means the show hasn’t been cancelled. More likely it’s a matter of making the economics work. MacFarlane said on social media last month: “it’s an expensive show in a tough streaming climate, so we’ll see. Our hearts are still in it, though, make no mistake. We’d love to do more.”
Adrianne Palicki, Scott Grimes, Peter Macon, Jessica Szohr, J Lee, Mark Johnson, Anne Winters, and Chad L. Coleman also star in the series which is available in full on Hulu.
