Come on Hulu, Just Renew The Orville Already

Back in 2022, io9 wrote a post strongly encouraging, maybe even begging, Hulu to renew The Orville. The plea came in the wake of The Orville: New Horizons, the show’s long-awaited first season on Hulu (and later, Disney+) after two seasons on Fox. 

There have been some flickers of hope over the years since, including encouraging words from Orville creator and star Seth MacFarlane, and some recent (if unsubstantiated) talk of an upcoming fourth season from star Scott Grimes. 

There’s also an official Guide to the Orville written by series writer and co-executive producer Andre Bormanis releasing next month, with the option for a snazzy deluxe edition that comes with a poster exploring the titular ship in detail and an array of Planetary Union patches. That’s not something you offer unless you know there are diehard fans eager to add to their Orville collections.

But as for any kind of official announcement—well, there’s been exactly nothing. Hulu is now fully a part of Disney+, which has plenty of its own space-opera action thanks to all the Star Wars content; The Orville actually pre-dates The Mandalorian, Disney+’s first live-action Star Wars series, by two years, and it may not be looking to invest in another sci-fi universe.

But the property The Orville is most often compared to is Star Trek; lest we forget, The Orville and Star Trek: Discovery, then the first new Trek series in over a decade, both premiered in September 2017. Discovery signed off earlier this year after five seasons, but there are multiple other Trek projects coming soon to Paramount+, including new seasons of the shows that are maybe most like The Orville: the animated Lower Decks, and The Original Series prequel Strange New Worlds. There’s also, as was recently reported, a live-action Star Trek comedy in the works. 

But while The Orville may share some common DNA with Star Trek—the uniforms, the guiding principles of exploration and science, the quirky crew, the holodeck, those Klingon-like Krill—what started off feeling like a Trek homage soon carved out its own corner of sci-fi storytelling. As io9 pointed out back in 2022, The Orville offered a blend of high-stakes action, unique characters (including its core cast as well as intriguing, highly detailed alien civilizations), technical prowess (the special effects, art direction, and music were always top-notch), and—this is a Seth MacFarlane show after all—a well-honed sense of humor. Also: it had some killer guest stars. You don’t see Dolly Parton in Star Trek or Star Wars, do you?

While season three of The Orville ended with a fairly classic happy-ending scenario—the wedding of two characters finally cementing their unlikely but undeniable human-robot relationship—it still feels like there’s more story to tell. Fan demand is there, and from what MacFarlane has said in interviews along the way, there’s still hope.

In early 2024, he told the Wrap that “there is no official death certificate for The Orville. It is still with us”—something that could mean more comic books, but hopefully points to something more. And it doesn’t have to be on Hulu; the shift from Fox for New Horizons may have taken awhile, but there was no drop in quality when the new episodes finally arrived.

If there’s any kind of Orville announcement, by Avis, we’ll certainly bring you more as and when we learn it. In the meantime, you can see what all the intergalactic fuss is about by streaming the first three seasons on Disney+.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.