‘The Orville’ Wraps Production On Season 3

| August 11, 2021 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 31 comments so far

It’s been over two years since The Orville – Seth MacFarlane’s homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation – closed out its second season. And now the third season has taken a big step forward.

That’s a wrap

MacFarlane made it official late Tuesday night that he had finally wrapped production on season three. On Twitter, the creator, star, and showrunner of the sci-fi series thanked his cast and crew for their “tireless and brilliant work.” He also offered some hope that there will be more adventures for the crew of the USS Orville, saying he hoped “this is not the last time we all go to space.”

The long road to season 3

Filming on season three originally began in October of 2019, after the series moved to Hulu from Fox, however, production shut down in March 2020 when all of Hollywood went on lockdown due to the pandemic. Production started up again in December 2020 with hopes to finish by April, but the show experienced some delays, primarily due to COVID protocols.

Speaking to Variety last week Hulu’s head of scripted content Jordan Helman,  said:

The Orville cuts are starting to come in. I don’t have a launch date to share with you yet. That project was impacted by COVID, as were all projects shooting last year. And so it’s taken a little bit of time to get on air. But what we’ve seen as far as, it’s really, really good.

Originally planned for eleven episodes, the season has been shortened to ten episodes. However, the runtime for each episode will be longer than when the show was broadcast on Fox. This is one of the advantages of moving to a streaming service that producers are taking advantage of.

Another impact on filming has been a shift in scale for the show. As executive producer David Goodman told TrekMovie, season three is “…going all the way. This season looks big, great stories.” And executive producer Brannon Braga told TrekMovie, the new season is “so much more ambitious even in its scope, in comparison to the first two seasons.”

Season 3 coming soon-ish… with hints of a season 4

As of now, there is no announced release date for season three, but post-production has been underway for some time. In an interview last week with Deadline Helman said: “I can’t share a launch date, but we’re really excited about what we’ve seen thus far.” Of the new season, Helman said:

I believe the fans of the show that are coming to us from Fox will be deeply excited and satiated. I also think for new fans that maybe didn’t experience it, it will feel new to them.

And it isn’t just Seth who is hinting there may be more The Orville to come after season three. When asked about another season, Helman teased a possible fourth season to Deadline, coyly saying that the “future of the show remains an open conversation and there have been no conversations otherwise.”

Countdown to production wrap

In the weeks leading up to the official wrap announcement MacFarlane, members of the cast, and co-producer/editor Tom Constatino have become more lively on social media, dropping hints they were in the home stretch of filming.

 

 

And on Tuesday night, Costantino joined MacFarlane in announcing the end of production, along with sharing the last clapperboard for season three.

 

We will have more coverage on season three of The Orville coming soon.

Keep up with all The Orville news and analysis on TrekMovie.

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Best news I’ve heard this year – Bring it on!

I really enjoy this show, this is good news. Time to give seasons one and two a rewatch. Orville always leaves me feeling good after an episode.

Season 4 would be a blast! And they might even do a spin-off series… Set 100 years before, it might be called Orville – The First Generation, shot entirely in 60s style :-)

As a little off-topic sidenote: I’d also love to see a DSC spin-off called “The Book of Book” :-)

Lol. Interesting idea. If not a spin-off series then perhaps a mini-series done in that style.

When it started I didn’t think I would enjoy this show as much as I did. Very much looking forward to Season 3.

Not a good show. And while I don’t think DSC is much better, it does have bright spots that Orville lacks.

Yea, it provides the same kind of weak-minded and juvenile comedy Trek that we get with Lower Decks.

I enjoy the Orville for what it is. It’s a well financed fan film.

Yes, well financed, well produced, well written and well acted.

That’s a ridiculous description.

Good news for Hulu subscribers. I watched the show on Fox so its as good as canceled for me. Maybe sometime down the line there will be a blu-ray i can purchase unless its another exclusive.

I’m not going to buy the disc. But in the past other Hulu shows have made it to Netflix. So perhaps this one will, too. If not, no great loss.

Can’t wait to watch Season 3! Love this show. It is truly Star Trek. As soon as they launch the upcoming season, really hope they can renew for few more years.

Season 2 took the show to a new level. Very impressed with the Kaylon plot, also the alt timeline at the end of the season. Very clever.

This show is amazing right from the start. Many Star Trek shows take 3-4 years to settle. The Orville made it right on 2. Reminds me Star Trek Voyager. Same vibes watching the show, from day 1, the show has been great!

Congratulations to Seth and his team, grateful he is always bringing good (Star Trek) actors/creative veterans to his show. It’s not easy to pull a successful sci-fi production, right from the beginning.

This is not something that will get me to subscribe to Hulu. Even if the show leaned more towards the comedy that made it unique and fun in season 1. Season 2 just turned into a “been there done that” TNG clone.

When it comes out on disc I’ll get it through the Netflix. I can wait.

Annie Winters looking like my ideal Starfleet officer crush in that pic 😍 also BOOMER CAPSLOCK ACTIVATED ON THAT REPLY

I am really looking forward to this. I thought season one was OK, but showed promise. But I still haven’t even watched all the episodes. Missing maybe 2 or 3 of them.. But I really enjoyed season 2 a lot and probably enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed season 2 of Discovery (and thought Orville’s finale was waaaaaay better than Discovery’s).

So definitely excited for season 3 and will probably watch both seasons 1 and 2 again before it starts including the ones I missed.

Very good news, the more science fiction on TV, the better. Let’s hope the casual fans will watch when it comes back on Hulu. Because of the pandemic, it’s been off the air for almost two years – let’s hope the adage out of sight, out of mind doesn’t apply here!
Happy to see the show seems to be taking itself more seriously with Hulu no longer calling it a dramedy! The first few shows back in S1 reminded me of the old Buck Rogers in the 25th Century series and I couldn’t take Seth seriously as Captain without thinking of Family Guy. Happy they moved away from all that and looking forward to seeing S3.

MacFarlane seems particularly disaffected with Fox as of late. Though the reason is ostensibly political (and COVID-related in particular), I wonder if it has anything to do with The Orville’s jump to Hulu.

Naah, the show was officially announced to move to Hulu back in 2019.

It got removed from Fox because of low ratings.

Now HULU is Disney guys, like the Simpsons!

That’s not even remotely true. It was renewed by Fox and then it got moved to Hulu as a placating move on Fox’s part to Seth who wanted more time than the traditional “this is the premiere date” would afford him for what he wanted to do in season 3. That’s been widely reported from all sides of the move to Hulu.

Not so sure. Normally such a move would be a demotion.

Whoopdie doo! It feels like a new season every 3 years…LOL

Cool! I do hope Disney’s 20th would release season three of The Orville on various home media formats, especially for those who cannot or no longer afford Hulu.

I enjoyed the first two seasons of Orville very much and I wish it continues for a long time, but the cynic and the realist in me is thinking this may be it for the show. 27 months between seasons is just too much and I don’t think it will recover from this gap especially when it comes to casual viewers. I hope I am wrong and it is a success on Hulu, but I feel like I am not.

The absolute BEST of the Nu-Trek shows.
And yes… it does not have Star Trek in name… but in nature.
Very much in contrast to… say… DSC… which ONLY has it in name… and not much else.

That was a long wait. But I’m glad, it’s (almost) over. Season one was good but felt too derivative at times. They often did the obvious things instead of the interesting ones. Kinda fitting, seeing how that’s what led to Voyagers ratings decline and ultimately the cancellation of Enterprise.

However Season 2 was a huge step up. The Humor was turned down a little and integrates better with the stories. And while the stories still felt a little derivative, this time they at least tried – and often succeeded – in adding a new dimension to an already told story.

Can’t wait for season 3, to up the game once more. I just hope, that Seths promises of a more grand vision of the show concern the quality of the writing. It would be a shame, if they went down the Discovery or Picard route in blowing up stuff left and right without any rhyme or reason.

Star Wars/Marvel got me to sub to D+… Orville will get me to add the Hulu bundle… Discovery/Picard… got me to finally digitize my physical copies of Star Trek and Frasier for my Plex server.

Super excited for season 3 of the Orville.

The visual effects masters at @fusefx have raised things to the next level…

Will we get it in 4K + HDR?

Wouldn’t it be funny if they technologically leap frogged those other people currently mismanaging Star Trek?

I’m about 95% skeptical/cynical and 5% hopeful that Season 3 will take a lesson from its master, TNG, and ditch the Hollywood/bubblegum plotting in favor of meaningful, logically cohesive thematic development, or go the route of unshackled comedy. Or, both. (Wouldn’t that be incredible!?!)

I’m almost certain that The Orville will not meaningfully change from the past two seasons, being that Seth MacFarlane appears fairly satisfied with the way it’s turned out thus far, but I’ll check out the first couple of episodes of Season 3 just to be certain.