The Orville is an American science fiction comedy drama [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] television series created by Seth MacFarlane , who also stars as the protagonist Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union's line of exploratory space vessels in the 25th century. It was inspired primarily by the original Star Trek and Next Generation eras, both of which it heavily parodies and pays homage to.
The series also uses inspiration from the Star Wars franchise. Produced by Fuzzy Door Productions and 20th Television , The Orville premiered on September 10, and ran for two seasons on Fox and became available on streaming service Hulu the following day, followed by a third season exclusively on Hulu.
Season one received generally negative reviews while seasons two and three received critical acclaim. The show had relatively successful ratings on Fox, becoming the broadcaster's highest-rated Thursday show as well as Fox's "most-viewed debut drama" since The series begins in the year , and consists of adventures encountered by the ship's crew, usually involving planet exploration and visits to various parts of the galaxy. MacFarlane originally wrote The Orville as a spec script , which was given a episode order by Fox in May , making it the first live-action television series created by MacFarlane.
In November , Fox renewed the series for a second season. On November 29, , Adrianne Palicki said that while there were talks of a potential fourth season, she had not been notified of the status of those talks.
She also said that she does not plan to return for any future seasons either, citing the slow shooting pace, which prevented Palicki and other co-stars from taking on roles in other projects. Lee were cast as series regulars. Coleman was added as a series regular and Larry Joe Campbell in a recurring role. In February , Jessica Szohr was cast as a regular for season two [ 73 ] and Chris Johnson in a recurring role. In August , actor and director Jon Favreau signed on to direct the pilot.
