Seth MacFarlane Explains Why THE ORVILLE: NEW HORIZONS Feels Like a Reset of the Show

When I watch the most recent trailer for the upcoming third season of The Orville, titled The Orville: New Horizons, it felt a little different from the previous seasons. The series started out as a Star Trek parody, but it’s evolved into more of a straight sci-fi drama sprinkled with humor.

Creator Seth MacFarlane and his team came at this third season with a different set of goals and a different approach to the series. During a recent interview with GamesRadar SFX Magazine, MacFarlane explained why the new season feels like a reset, saying:

"It seemed that because the show was going to be making such an uptick in scope, and in many ways, going to feel like a reset, it felt like it wanted something special. You had a new opening title, a new set, new costumes, a new look, just a new aesthetic that really competes in the world of streaming shows."

Executive producer Brannon Braga expanded on that, saying MacFarlane was feeling constrained, and this season they wanted to open things up for him to fully realize his vision:

"The show is still the show, but with some new aspects to it. We’re getting to a point in the third season where the kinds of stories we wanted to tell were much broader and more ambitious in scope than even the first two seasons. Seth was feeling constrained by it. The show features a newly revamped Orville, a new crew member on the bridge, and what we think are bigger, more spectacular stories, not just in terms of the visuals and the action, but the emotions and the emotional fireworks as well."

The Star Trek-inspired series is set 400 years in the future, and it “finds the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continuing their mission of exploration, as they navigate both the mysteries of the universe and the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships.”

The future of the show is uncertain after the upcoming season as MacFarlane has been focusing his attention on other projects that he has in development under his huge deal with NBCUniversal. But Hulu and the producers are keeping the door open for more seasons, if and when the creator wants to do it.