“The Orville” is waiting for a fourth season. But the changes in the streaming industry don’t make it easy. Now series creator Seth MacFarlane talks about the future of his science fiction adventure. Will The Orville Season 4 exist?
- “The Orville” is in fear of a 4th season.
- After moving to Disney, the future of the science fiction series is uncertain.
- Blame it on the changing streaming industry, according to series creator Seth MacFarlane.
“The Orville” is Seth MacFarlane’s humorous answer to “Star Trek.” In the three seasons so far, the series creator plays with science fiction clichés, breaks with conventions and delights a large audience. His series is popular, even among Trekkies, and yet no The Orville Season 4 has yet been announced. Now MacFarlane himself speaks out via Twitter and answers a fan about the whereabouts of “The Orville”.
The industry is in the midst of a time of upheaval and change. I wish I could give a definitive answer to your question. For now, all I can say is that I remain cautiously optimistic.
Seth MacFarlane via Twitter
“The Orville” migrated to the US streaming service Hulu in the summer of 2022 with season 3. There, the series continued to run successfully and yet the service, which belongs to Disney, has not yet given the green light for further episodes.
Thus, “The Orville” is just one of many “victims” of the current change that MacFarlane mentions in his commentary. The streaming industry has experienced an enormous boom since the 2010s and grew at an incredible pace until today. Now that boom has reached its end and growth is slowing.
This has forced companies like Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney to restructure the strategy they have been following for the past few years. While the companies continue to pour millions into their productions, they now have to pay more attention to what content leads to significant subscriber growth.
A good example of this is the U.S. streaming service HBO Max, from which the series “The Last of Us,” “House of the Dragon” and “Doom Patrol,” among others, originate. After the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery, the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery decided to discontinue HBO Max.
Only truly lucrative series would be transferred to their new streaming service. As a result, countless series and productions were scrapped. Among them was the “Batgirl” film, which had already been shot.
Netflix has also increasingly made negative headlines in recent months. The streaming service canceled numerous series such as “Warrior Nun,” “1899” and “Fate – The Winx Saga” after only a few seasons.
A similar thing will now happen to Disney. The company announced major changes. In the future, Disney will cut costs for personnel, advertising and their entertainment programs. This is to increase efficiency.
One of the first to feel the changes was the fantasy series “Willow”. After just one season, the series, which didn’t launch until winter 2022, was canceled. “The Orville” could possibly fare similarly. So far, Disney has not announced whether the sci-fi series will comply with the company’s new structure.
The Orville Season 4: No major cliffhangers after Season 3
In wise foresight, MacFarlane has probably already prepared for the end of the series, giving season 3 a relatively round finale. Thus, in the finale we see the renewal of the marriage of Bortus (Peter Macon) and Klyden (Chad L. Coleman), as well as the wedding of Claire and Isaac. Thus, the final episode focused a lot on the characters’ relationships rather than throwing in a big cliffhanger. The future of most of the characters is hopeful and positive.
Only Ed’s (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly’s (Adrianne Palicki) romantic relationship remains in limbo. It is also unclear where Ed’s daughter Anaya is at the end of Season 3. Her mother Telaya was captured by the Union, but still refused to hand Anaya over to Ed. So season 4 could at least clarify what happened to Anaya.