The Orville: Seth MacFarlane Calls Season 4 a "Blank Slate"
Season three of The Orville, or as it's now known The Orville: New Horizons, has just wrapped up and fans are wondering if the series will return with even more episodes in the near future. In a surprise move, series creator and star Seth MacFarlane remains unsure about the show's potential for more and has now said as much in an interview. When asked by TV Line if the fourth season of the show would upgrade two key characters to series regulars, MacFarlane offered a shrug: "That's a tough one, because I don't know. Season 4 is a blank slate."
MacFarlane adds, "It's tough to chart what 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!"
The Emmy-winning writer previously pegged the odds of a renewal for the series at "50-50," but since all three seasons of the series are now streaming on Disney+ in addition to Hulu there could be even more eyeballs on it than ever.
"From a storytelling standpoint, it's much better for me because the biggest issue I have with, particularly, the prevalence of streaming programming, there's some talented writers working on network dramas, but the problem is that you have to cut everything down to exactly 43 minutes," MacFarlane told ComicBook.com previously about the series moving to streaming. "That's not how storytelling works. It doesn't. Not every story wants to be the same length and if you have a scene that's playing really great, that's emotional and you take your time with it. and it really makes the audience feel something, you may have to cut something down that really should not be cut down."
The Orville: New Horizons is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.
