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The Orville gained a cult following over its first two seasons—but those fans have had a long time to wait for Season 3. The last set of episodes aired on Fox in April 2019, with Season 3 of the Seth MacFarlane show ordered a few months later.
At that time, it was announced that the show would move from Fox to Hulu, as the show's makers did not believe they could get a full season made in time for the 2019-2020 TV season. Instead, The Orville Season 3 was expected to come to Hulu towards the end of 2020.
Towards that we are towards the end of 2020, however, it seems as if the coronavirus has delayed the next season into 2021.
This was hinted in an Instagram Q&A between MacFarlane and Talla Keyali actor Jessica Szohr in which the former said: "All I can say is we're working on it. We're working very hard...We will be back soon, folks."
In the same interview, Szohr revealed that about half of the show was completed when the coronavirus shut down the set of The Orville and most other productions around the world. "We were, like, pushing through the middle of the season, scripts were banging out, gas pedal down, and then it was like, 'Halt!'" the actor said.
Shooting on The Orville shut down on March 15, 2020. Initially, this shutdown was for three weeks, but six months later the show has still not restarted filming. On a May episode of The Tonight Show, MacFarlane joked of this, "We were right in the middle of shooting an episode of The Orville. So it's like, when this thing airs at long last, whenever that is, one episode is gonna be such that between one scene to the next, people are suddenly gonna gain 20 lbs and have long, white beards."
In his interview with Szohy, MacFarlane revealed why the show has not restarted filming yet despite other shows going back on set. He said: "For a show with a lot of prosthetic makeup that requires close contact, a lot of background artists... it's a big job, and you want to make sure you do it in a way that keeps everyone safe and secure. Once we have those protocols figured out, we will start up again and you will get more Orville."
Executive producer David Goodman, however, revealed to TrekMovie that the show has managed to do some post-production remotely. He said: "We are able to function. We are able to get things into the pipeline to clear up time. It is a lot of engineering. We are doing everything we can, but eventually, we will have to wait for more footage, but this is a valuable time to get things going...Everybody is learning in real-time."
The Orville Season 3 is coming soon to Hulu.
