The Orville is heading to new and exciting places for its upcoming third season. Obviously, by ‘new and exciting places,’ I mean Hulu. That’s right, the sci-fi comedy series from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is heading to Hulu for its upcoming third season.
MacFarlane made the announcement during the show’s Comic-Con panel on Saturday.
The Orville didn’t have the best start on Fox when it comes to viewership. But, the show has steadily grown its audience while garnering more critical acclaim since its premiere. Going into the weekend, many hoped we’d get a trailer of some kind for the next season but, part of the reasoning behind the move is to secure a more flexible production schedule. The show will return in late 2020, debuting as a Hulu Original on the streaming network. It’s unclear yet if the series will release on a weekly basis like Hulu’s flagship program, The Handmaid’s Tale, or if the season will land all at once as Netflix shows do.
Here’s MacFarlane’s full statement from The Orville panel regarding the show’s move:
“The Orville has been a labor of love for me, and there are two companies which have supported that vision in a big way: 20th Century Fox Television, where I’ve had a deal since the start of my career, and Fox Broadcasting Company, now Fox Entertainment, which has been my broadcast home for over 20 years.”
“My friends at the network understood what I was trying to do with this series, and they’ve done a spectacular job of marketing, launching and programming it for these past two seasons. But as the show has evolved and become more ambitious production-wise, I determined that I would not be able to deliver episodes until 2020, which would be challenging for the network. So we began to discuss how best to support the third season in a way that worked for the show. It’s exactly this kind of willingness to accommodate a show’s creative needs that’s made me want to stick around for so long. I am hugely indebted to Charlie Collier and Fox Entertainment for their generosity and look forward to developing future projects there. And to my new friends at Hulu, I look forward to our new partnership exploring the galaxy together.”
The Orville will return for its third season in 2020, exclusively on Hulu.
