In August of this year, a rumor started up that Seth MacFarlane’s sci fi series The Orville will be ending with its upcoming third season (which will stream on its new home Hulu). It began with an article from The Cinema Spot that seemed to confirm that the show’s third season would be its last and that the sets would be reused for Hulu’s upcoming reboot of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The author of the article did not cite any sources for the information, and at the time I first saw it I figured it was best to wait until an official announcement was made. Nothing has come out since then and none of the mainstream entertainment media sites have made any mention of the cancellation. But the scuttlebutt about the show persists on the internet, and I felt a need to address the rumors.
Shortly after the article from The Cinema Spot was published, producer Tom Costantino responded to the rumors on Twitter stating “We can barely figure out how to get back to work. Wouldn’t worry about 2021. Or 22”. He later replied to somebody on Twitter asking for clarification on the cancellation rumor saying “No Truth. Don’t Worry.” So Costantino is suggesting that the Season 3 cancellation is not true, but producers have to take the role of politicians at times, and he may not be allowed to reveal what is truly going on behind the scenes.
Typically, I would have dismissed all of this as part of the Hollywood rumor mill, but some recent news involving the show’s star and creator Seth MacFarlane made me think twice. Earlier in the year, MacFarlane signed a multi-million dollar deal with NBCUniversal for developing new properties which had him departing from 20th Television (which owns The Orville). That does not mean he cannot work on the show, but typically these sort of deals see the creator moving on from prior projects. In addition, last month it was announced that he is starting work on The Winds of War limited series. Again, this would not keep him from The Orville, but it definitely tightens up his schedule.
At this point, though, we should count the cancellation murmurs as nothing more than hearsay. But sometimes in the entertainment industry, those rumors come from whispers behind the scenes that hold some truth. The Orville finds itself in an odd place following the Disney buyout of Fox’s entertainment division. The show is now under the roof of the House of Mouse, and sometimes new owners are not as passionate about projects they did not create.
But Hulu may prove to be a good home for the show as that allows it to move beyond the restrictions of broadcast standards and really explore some of the adult themes it has worked into its stories. It looks like the third season will not debut until mid-2021 (over two years after the premiere of the second season), and perhaps official news about the show’s future will arrive by then. In the meantime, it’s not a bad idea for fans to make a Call to Action in support of the series. Seasons 1 and 2 are on Hulu, and watch-parties plus trending on the social networks could definitely give it a boost and perhaps edge it towards a fourth season renewal.
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The person that “broke” the story also claimed the sets were sold https://twitter.com/Vullein/status/1290209469251477506
Since only half of season 3 has been filmed this is clearly not true. If they lied about this, they lied about the cancellation