Seth MacFarlane 'cautiously optimistic' about 'The Orville' being renewed for Season 4
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'The Orville' creator and star Seth MacFarlane has given fans an update about the show potentially returning for Season 4. Reflecting on what he thinks is a volatile period for the TV industry, MacFarlane noted on Twitter that he is "cautiously optimistic" despite the fact that nothing is official and Disney has not commented either way.
Fans are eagerly awaiting word on whether or not 'The Orville' will get a Season 4. In August 2022, MacFarlane had stated that he thought 'The Orville' had a 50/50 chance of being renewed and that new fans binge-watching the show on Disney+ might swing the odds in its favor.
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'A time of upheaval'
Responding to a tweet wondering about the prospects of a renewal, MacFarlane wrote, "The industry is in the midst of a time of upheaval and transition. I wish I could provide a definitive answer to your question. At the moment, all I can say is that I remain… cautiously optimistic."
The industry is in the midst of a time of upheaval and transition. I wish I could provide a definitive answer to your question. At the moment, all I can say is that I remain… cautiously optimistic. 🚀 https://t.co/DIsZWBJFga
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) March 20, 2023
Actor Chad L Coleman expressed similar sentiments in a recent interview with CinemaBlend. "We're all in the loop and out of the loop. We think it's gonna happen, but it's still up in the air. There's so much going on with all of these studios that it's just like, 'Well, we gotta settle this thing first, then we can really decide on that thing.' A bunch of that is going on. We hope so. [Series creator] Seth [MacFarlane] has an amazing relationship with Dana [Walden] and with Disney, who's running it now. And they said they've had promising meetings, so we'll see," he said.
What does the future look like?
In August 2022, MacFarlane expressed his belief that the show has a 50/50 chance of getting renewed in an interview with TVline. He said, "My hope is that when the show drops on Disney+, the people who haven't yet discovered [The Orville] will suddenly give it a chance, that's a potential game changer for us. I think that creatively and audience-wise, when people sit down and give the show a chance, it upends their expectations. The biggest burden with the show is preconceptions. People think it's one thing — there are people out there who think it's a sitcom — and when they sit down to watch it they realize its something completely different. Once you get people's eyeballs on it, the show does the work, it speaks for itself, and people tend to be hooked."
As for what the new season would look like, MacFarlane said, "It's tough to chart exactly what a Season 4 would be, because when we started writing Season 3, half the stuff that happened — the shifting of the Alliances, the Kaylon becoming an ally, the Moclans becoming enemies — I never could have predicted. It's just something that came about in the writers' room over time. Certainly, we set up threads this year, and most were pretty obvious, that lend themselves to payoffs in a Season 4, but how everything intertwines and evolves and develops…. I don't even know if we're picked up!"
