It's been nearly three years since we last saw the USS Orville take flight, but it looks like Captain Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) and his crew will finally be back in action near the top of next year. Hulu has announced that The Orville, now titled The Orville: New Horizons, will return for season three on Thursday, March 10, 2022.
New episodes will release on a weekly schedule, streaming exclusively on Hulu for an eleven-episode run. While shorter than the previous two seasons, each episode is said to run 12-15 minutes longer. Seth MacFarlane and Jon Cassar were the only two directors that worked on this new season.
Production initially began in October 2019, but was halted in March 2020 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and didn't restart until December 2020. However, the winter surge resulted in another shutdown and filming didn't resume until February 2021, finally wrapping in August.
The main cast for season three includes Seth MacFarlane as Capt. Ed Mercer, Adrianne Palicki as Cmdr. Kelly Grayson, Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Claire Finn, Scott Grimes as Lt. Gordon Malloy, Peter Macon as Lt. Cmdr. Bortus, J. Lee as Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr, Mark Jackson as Isaac, Chad L. Coleman as Klyden, Jessica Szohr as Lt. Talla Keyali, and Anne Winters as Charly Burke.
It was also confirmed last week that the late Norm Macdonald had already completed his voice work as Lt. Yaphit for the upcoming season, so New Horizons will mark his final television performance.
Check out the official announcement teaser below:
Seth MacFarlane’s epic space adventure series “The Orville” returns exclusively as a Hulu original series. Set 400 years in the future, “The Orville: New Horizons” 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.