SDCC: The Orville announces move from Fox to Hulu for third season
Well, it looks like The Orville will have a new home when it returns for its third season.
Just over two months after Fox announced The Orville‘s renewal for a third season, Seth MacFarlane surprised San Diego Comic-Con by saying the show will be moving to Hulu.
According to a report from Deadline, The Orville has simply grown too large for the timing constraints of network television. Looking back at the second season, you can start to get why.
In the show’s second season, it definitely started to take on a more cinematic feel. It ventured deeper into sci-fi lore, with more involved storylines and multipart episodes. You kind of get the feeling that MacFarlane really wants this show to be taken seriously in the annals of sci-fi history.
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Per Deadline‘s report, it sounds like The Orville’s third season is a bit too ambitious to meet it’s mid-season debut timeline. And, thanks to Disney owning basically everything, The Orville is able to make an easy move to Hulu to accomplish its vision.
This isn’t the first time a show has been renewed and then moved to a streaming service. Deadline, cites You‘s move from Lifetime to Netflix and The Mindy Project‘s move from Fox to Hulu as previous examples. This move is made possible because Disney, after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s assets, owns 20th Century Fox Television (who has a contract with MacFarlane) as well as Hulu. It’s all in the mouse family.
MacFarlane commented on the move by thanking the companies that have overseen the growth of his project thus far. He continued, discussing the move, per Deadline:
"“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. 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.”"
Hulu is set up to host an impressive slate of shows for those looking for some genre excitement. Castle Rock, Future Man, Into the Dark and the upcoming series Reprisal make worthy companions to The Orville.
Plus, I have to imagine the people who work on the show have to be excited to no longer share a time slot with dominant shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place. The Orville has always had a great fanbase, but most of the show’s ratings came from delayed and on-demand viewing.
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What excites me most about this move are the storyline possibilities. The Orville was already struggling to fit their scripts into the one hour time slot they had on Fox (consistently airing with limited commercial interruptions). Last season, The Orville took on time travel, had powerful social commentary and still found plenty of room to be a good comedy. This could be what the show needs to take the next step to being a great sci-fi series.
What do you think of The Orville‘s move to Hulu? Let us know in the comments!
(Source: Deadline)