Adrianne Palicki Bearish on The Orville Returning: ‘It’s a Really Difficult Show to Shoot’
It sounds, more than ever, as if the Orville‘s days exploring the cosmos may be over.
The Seth MacFarlane-captained space saga has been MIA since August 2022, and many signs have pointed to The Orville being spacedocked — especially given how long it took to get Season 3 launched. Hulu, though, has yet to confirm that the expensive, VFX-heavy series won’t be returning.
But now, in a visit to Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, Adrianne Palicki said, “No, no longer doing that,” when asked about her leading role on the series.
When Rosenbaum then asked if The Orville was in fact “cancelled” (at the 30:00 mark in the YouTube video above), Palicki said, “I don’t know, truly, the answer to that.
“I think there’s talk that it could possibly be something that certain people want to do…,” she continued, choosing words carefully, “but it’s a really difficult show to shoot, man.”
To that point, Palicki explained how The Orville shot 33 episodes over the course of six years, which doesn’t exactly provide a steady income stream for an actor, at an average of just 5-1/2 episodes a year.
“It became an actual, real issue,” she said, “because there would be so much time in between seasons because Seth wanted to write everything himself…. At one point, we were like, ‘We have to fight the studio to give us a holding fee or something,” with cast member J. Lee reportedly getting by on “saltines and Gatorade” at one point. “It was horrible,” she says.
Season 3 aka The Orville: New Horizons streamed June 2 through Aug. 4, 2022. When TVLine spoke with series creator/star MacFarlane after the finale, he said that one sticky wicket facing any possible Season 4 was, “How do I work it into everything else that’s now going on?” (including but not limited to his Ted prequel series for Peacock). “I will say that I get as emotionally invested in the show as any of the fans, so I will find a way to do it if there is a Season 4.”
Meanwhile, Craig Erwich, President, ABC Entertainment, Hulu & Disney Branded Television Streaming Originals, told TVLine in January, “It’s a great show and I know that the fans loved having it back in their lives. And Seth did a great job, uniquely as he can, in front of and behind the camera. But we don’t have anything to share right now” about the show’s fate. (And last TVLine checked, there had been no updates.)
It’s a great show, season 3 was really a gem under every aspects.
Having episodes so long it seemed like a series of movies at some point, maybe they could adopt the “british way” and produce 3/4 long episodes every couple of years, would be more affordable
Exactly this!
The Firefly movie over thought it. If a sci-fi show is expensive to make, it should be a cheaper movie. An old article said it cost 7 million an episode! So make a movie for $25-$30 million every few years. I can actually see it making it’s money back. It’s the best live action ‘Star Trek’ since Deep Space Nine.
Even British “tentpole” shows like Doctor Who have had to get US TV onboard as well though, it’s moved from BBC America to Disney+ (Outside of the UK). Money is tight everywhere.
What I hear is it’s time to make movies!
Hulu is half owned by Disney and half by Comcast. Disney is wanting to buy the rest of Hulu in 2024. If that happens, The Orville will return, as the original leadership that greenlit and still support the show are now working at Disney (the “certain people” she is referring to). The show will be back, albeit with a smaller budget. Seth MacFarlane may have less involvement as well.
This is a whole pile of assumption based on what?
They moved up the acquisition from an original plan of 2024 for this year. It should conclude December 1st, in just a couple days. Disney already invested a lot in Doctor Who and has their Star Wars franchise, and they recently dumped series like Spiderwick Chronicles and Nautilus as they looked to trim streaming costs. I would absolutely love to see more, and perhaps an occasional streaming movie (as others mentioned above) in the mold of the Doctor Who specials would be a way to go. But I don’t think one should get their hopes up just because of Disney owning more of Hulu.
You really are living in your own little dreamworld. The Orville is owned by Disney, not Comcast. They could have given the go ahead for a fourth season at Disney+ at any time, they didn’t.
I had to read your comment again that’s just how wrong it is.
Comcast didn’t own half of Hulu, they owed a 33.3% and Disney owned 66.7%.
None of this has anything to do with The Orville. If the ratings were great and costs were lower there would have been a 4th season announcement by now.
Ugh I hope not Disney trashes every entity it buys.
It’s unfortunate, because it was such a good show, but it sounds like even if the studios wanted the show to come back, which frankly doesn’t seem likely, the cast likely won’t want to. It definitely sounds like MacFarlane doesn’t have the skillset to produce a show on a schedule, and Palicki is *severely* over it.
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In the extremely unlikely event it comes back, the studio would need to assign an experienced showrunner to partner with MacFarlane so he doesn’t get so deep into the weeds, and so episodes can be written and shot on a TV schedule.
It’s not that he doesnt have the skillset to produce a show on a schedule, it’s that he’s trying to do so many at once.
Just in the past 2 years there’s Orville, Family Guy, American Dad and the upcoming Ted series where he is EP, writer, and star, and hes EP and writer for Bill Nyes The End Is Nye series and the Naked Gun sequel thats in preproduction, and he did voicework for another series (Stoner Cats)
I’m sorry but who tf asked for a Ted prequel series??
Was anyone really asking for that? Like, at all?
It would nice at some point if these streaming services would stop producing garbage for a quick buck instead of something quality that actually lasts beyond one season.
Loved season 1 and 2, couldn’t get through season 3. Was so disappointed.
You are literally the only one.
Lol. No I’m not.
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I tried multiple times and just couldn’t keep watching.
No, no she isn’t! I thought season 3 was mediocre!
Did you miss the part about lower viewership. Elle is DEFINITELY not the only one.
Loved the first two, season 3 was cheeks.
Season 1 was still finding its voice and had mixed reviews. By season 2, it had become perfection that somehow exceeded even that in season 3.
The Orville is such incredible show! I really do hope they make another season or even a movie. I cannot recommend this show enough.
Freaking love this show. Major disappointment if it’s not picked up by someone somewhere!
The problem isn’t the network this time, but instead it is Seth McFarlane and his schedule. I don’t think the show is going to happen unless Seth McFarlane relinquishes some control over the series.
A friend of mine who worked on the show said that MacFarlane’s quest for perfection drove the series so far over budget that he literally paid the balance out of his own pocket. So it’s not so much a time management issue as it is the cost, because Seth wants every episode to look like a high-end feature (which they are, given Season 3’s running times), but he can’t afford to keep paying for the overages.
I enjoyed the show but it would still totally work without Seth McFarlane. The episodes that focused on other characters were some of the better ones.
He wrote every episode. So nah. Don’t think it would work without him. :)
WWWWWAAAAA 😢😢
I read that headline and thought that she must have got married to a Mr. Bearish. What an unusual name.
And then it clicked.
This isn’t as easy as saying “Disney can just renew it if they want to.” Um…no. Disney is a complete disaster right now. There are too many hands in The Orville’s kitchen to just simply rush it into production. The question is, “Where?” The Orville is co-produced by 20th Century Television (Disney) and Fuzzy Door Productions (Seth Macfarlane). Things are complicated, with Disney bullish on the show, and Hulu isn’t. MacFarlane is more interested in his new NBC/Universal deal than working on The Orville, or anything for Disney. Disney can’t just pour money into a new season and maintain quality…Disney Plus and it’s genius Panderverse are bleeding subscribers and profits. There are just too many factors preventing a renewal in the near future. There is talk within Disney that once Hulu is fully folded into Disney, Disney Plus will merge into the Hulu entity (with lesser content) as Hulu is performing much better. This makes financial sense for both. The only question left is what will MacFarlane want to do?
It’s not a ‘bad’ show but the audience only has so much patience!
Were they not allowed to work in any sort of regular capacity on other tv shows while this was going on? Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but if that’s the case, McFarlene’s insistence on writing every episode (when he didn’t have the time and assuming that was-as was insinuated, part of what slowed the production to such an extent) strikes me as inconsiderate at the very least. If people were forced to live on gatorade and saltines, I can understand why there’s no rush to return.
I absolutely love Seth McFarlane and his shows, this one especially. But as a fan a decision needs to be made. Either give us what we want, more seasons as we know he can go the distance with his stories, or break it off and cancel it. Don’t leave us in limbo.
If we don’t get a Season 4, I will lose my mind! The story must continue!!!