Adrianne Palicki Offers Disappointing Update on THE ORVILLE Season 4 - "It Just Kind of Went Away"
We’re nearly halfway through 2025, and fans of The Orville are still waiting for any concrete news on the fate of the series. After Scott Grimes teased last year that Season 4 would begin filming this year, hopes were high that more adventures aboard the USS Orville were finally on the horizon.
But as spring comes to a close, things are starting to look more uncertain than ever, especially with recent comments from cast member Adrianne Palicki.
While promoting her latest film The Salamander King at the Dallas International Film Festival, Palicki revealed to MovieWeb that The Orville Season 4 might not be happening at all. In fact, she hasn’t heard a thing since the Hollywood strikes:
“That would be a conversation, if that was going to be a thing... [Seth] called me and asked if I would do it, and it was a possibility, and then the strikes happened. It kind of just went away. I know a lot of people are disappointed about that, but as of now, I don't know that there's going to be a fourth season.”
It’s not exactly a cancellation, but it doesn’t inspire confidence either. Palicki’s tone suggests she’s just as much in the dark as the rest of us. And given her past remarks, she might not be all that eager to return even if the show does come back.
Palicki has previously been open about how difficult The Orville was to shoot. With only 33 episodes made over six years, the long breaks between seasons were financially and emotionally draining for the cast. As she put it:
“It became an actual issue because there would be so much time in between seasons because Seth [MacFarlane] wanted to write everything himself... J. Lee was eating saltines and Gatorade at one point because we just couldn't afford anything. It was horrible.”
It’s clear that despite the love for the show’s vision and storytelling, the reality of working on The Orville came with real struggles for its actors. Between MacFarlane’s painstaking creative process and the show’s scale, delays were the norm.
While Hulu has yet to officially announce a renewal, maybe Seth MacFarlane is quietly writing Season 4 behind the scenes. Who knows, though, because he’s such a busy guy and he’s already got so much on his plate.
We’ll just have to continue to wait and see.