The Orville producer Tom Costantino recently responded to a new rumor concerning The Orville indicating the show would be cancelled following its third season.
That rumor came from Emre Kaya at The Cinema Spot.
He reported, “I have some unfortunate news for fans of The Orville. Hulu has decided to cancel the show and will not return for a fourth season.”
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“I am still trying to get more details on the situation but from my understanding, the intention was never to make a fourth season,” he then added.
Kaya even claims that the sets and props will be used for another Hulu show that will take its place, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
He writes, “It is clear to me that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is supposed to be a replacement of The Orville, as they are both comedy sci-fi series, and Hitchhiker’s Guide will be replacing The Orville in the studio lot.”
Deadline reported back in July 2019 that Hulu was developing a new adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy TV series. They indicated the series was being adapted by showrunner Carlton Cuse and writer Jason Fuchs.
There are only rumors from Kaya at this time indicating the show has already been renewed for a second season despite not even airing a single episode yet.
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Costantino responded to this rumor on Twitter initially stating, “We can barely figure out how to get back to work. Wouldn’t worry about 2021. Or 22.”
He would even mock the entire rumor using a photo of Harry Truman holding up a headline from the Chicago Daily Tribune that read “Dewey Defeats Truman.” The headline was completely fabricated as Truman defeated Dewey in the 1948 election.
Costantino wrote, “Thank my friend Molly Shock for the reference. Crawling under my rock again dear friends!”
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He would later state, “No truth. Don’t worry.”
Kaya would respond to Costantino’s comments on Twitter.
He wrote, “I like how a producer on The Orville said my scoop about the show ending after season 3 is not true, but they admitted in the same thread that they do not know if season 4 is happening. Okay.”
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He added, “Even if we assume my inside info is false, there’s just too much against The Orville for it to get a fourth season. If they really didn’t plan to end it like my article states, we’re definitely getting an open ending. Probably a cliffhanger, too.”
In another tweet he wrote, “Unless an executive producer, production coordinator or maybe a writer says my article is false, I recommend not believing it. Even then, they have literally zero reason to tell us the truth.”
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He then claimed that, “Fox Studios has literally put all of The Orville’s sound stages up as available on their website. You don’t do this if you’re planning on continuing the show.”
The link he provides lists off a number of Fox Studios sound stages, each sound stage also has a list of films and TV shows that have been made there. None of them list The Orville.
Nevertheless, Kaya would add, “They never intended to make a fourth season, it has always supposed to end after season 3.”
He continued, “Seth MacFarlane signed a new output deal with NBCUniversal and I don’t think he’ll have time for The Orville.”
Indeed The Hollywood Reporter reported that MacFarlane inked a $200 million deal with NBC. They noted in their report, “Sources say MacFarlane and his Fuzzy Door Productions banner will create and develop new TV projects for across the media giant’s portfolio, working with cable- and streaming-focused Universal Content Productions as well as broadcast-leaning Universal Television in the division fronted by Bonnie Hammer.”
THR also stated, “In addition to continuing his work on current shows like Family Guy, MacFarlane is said to be excited to create new projects for across the NBCU fold, including for basic cabler Syfy.”
“Sources say he’s interested in starring in and producing musicals, political dramas and anthologies around historic events in addition to working on new animated projects,” they noted.
More interesting is that THR reported that MacFarlane’s deal with NBC Universal allowed him “to have so-called carve outs that allow him to continue working on all three shows for Disney’s 20th TV — as well as other preexisting development for the studio, including the Hulu movie Books of Blood and new development at Fox.”
Those three shows are The Orville, Family Guy, and American Dad.
Still, Kaya continued, “The Orville doesn’t make sense lot of money and was mostly made to please Seth and keep him at FOX. The Orville isn’t on FOX anymore and Seth has signed a deal with the competition, so why keep The Orville around? It doesn’t make sense for both parties.”
He finally concluded, “Unless The Orville season 3 somehow performs insanely well, better than ever before, there’s no reason to make a fourth season.”
He added, “IF The Orville season 3 performs so good they want to make a fourth season, they’ll have to rebuild the sets and everything.”
What do you make of this alleged rumor concerning The Orville? What about Costantino’s response? And then Kaya’s follow-up?