Report: The Orville Season 3 Will Only Have Two Directors The Entire Season

John F. Trent |

Apr 27, 2020

A new report details that Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville Season 3 will only have two directors for the entire season.

The report comes from ComicBook.com and is based off comments from former The Orville director Jonathan Frakes.

Frakes told the CBS-owned outlet, “I’m not involved with the third season.”

He added, “They made a decision to have Seth and John Cassar, who’s the producing director, direct all the episodes of the third season of that show, much to my chagrin, but that’s the way it goes.”

Back in October, Frakes had expressed interest in an acting role on the show. He stated, “I’m hoping at some point that I can appear on Orville. Perhaps in full alien regalia.”

Frakes previously directed Season 1 Episode 5 “Pria” and Season 2 Episode 12 “Sanctuary” for The Orville.

While it doesn’t appear that Frakes will be returning for The Orville Season 3, McFarlane and Jon Cassar have big plans for the third season.

Cassar discussed the show in October at New York Comic Con, where he explained the third season would have 11 episodes. Each episode is expected to be similar to the two-parter “Identity” from Season 2.

He explained, “All I can tell you is that after last year’s [episode] ‘Identity’ — [Parts] 1 and 2 — which I’m sure you’ve all seen, is that Seth wants to make all this year all like that.”

He added, “So, I’m telling you right now, that it’s double the production schedule that we had before, and it’s going to be huge.”

Executive Producer David A. Goodman added his own comments noting the move to Hulu allowed the show to have a “little more freedom.”

He stated, “Being on Hulu, being on a streaming service like that gives us a little more freedom — maybe too much!”

Goodman added, “But it’s going to be quite a season. You’re going to have to take my word for it.”

The Orville previously aired on Fox, but will make the move to Hulu for Season 3.

MacFarlane commented on the move back in July 2019. He stated, “The Orville has been a labor of love for me, and there are two companies which have supported that vision in a big way: 20th Century Fox Television, where I’ve had a deal since the start of my career, and Fox Broadcasting Company, now Fox Entertainment, which has been my broadcast home for over 20 years.”

He added, “My friends at the network understood what I was trying to do with this series, and they’ve done a spectacular job of marketing, launching and programming it for these past two seasons. But as the show has evolved and become more ambitious production-wise, I determined that I would not be able to deliver episodes until 2020, which would be challenging for the network.”

He continued, “So we began to discuss how best to support the third season in a way that worked for the show. It’s exactly this kind of willingness to accommodate a show’s creative needs that’s made me want to stick around for so long.

MacFarlane concluded, “I am hugely indebted to Charlie Collier and Fox Entertainment for their generosity and look forward to developing future projects there. And to my new friends at Hulu, I look forward to our new partnership exploring the galaxy together.”

The Orville Season 3 is expected to debut on Hulu sometime later this year. The show follows the crew of the exploratory vessel the U.S.S. Orville.