#Will ‘The Orville’ Season 3 Be Released? Seth MacFarlane Promises It’s ‘a Huge Priority’

The Orville‘s move to Hulu will still happen, but it is a question of when Season 3 will premiere on the streaming service.

Seth MacFarlane’s space comedy, which aired its first two seasons on Fox, wasn’t set to return until 2020, as the star and creator announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. But now 2021 seems to be a much more probable debut for its new episodes.

As MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer) and series star Jessica Szohr (Lieutenant Talla Keyali) discuss in a Q&A on her Instagram Monday, they were in the middle of filming when production shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We were pushing through, middle of the season, scripts are banging out, gas pedal down, and it was like, ‘halt,'” she recalls.

But for those worried that The Orville could end up being canceled as a result of the pandemic and new guidelines that must be followed on sets to ensure the health and safety of the cast and crew (as other shows have been), it doesn’t sound like you need to be. “We’re working on it,” MacFarlane says. “The show is still a huge priority for me and for the cast and for everyone else. We do have a season to finish and we are going to finish it.

“Right now, it’s really just about the logistics of how we do it in this climate while keeping everyone safe, and for a show with a lot of prosthetic makeup that requires close contact, a lot of background artists, it’s a big job, and so you just want to make sure you do it in a way that keeps everyone safe and secure,” he continues. “Once we have those protocols worked out, then we will start up again and you will get more Orville.”

“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,” MacFarlane previously said to explain the move to Hulu in 2019. “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.”

While there isn’t a release date yet for Season 3, MacFarlane does say, “we will be back soon.” So don’t worry, fans. Your favorite characters will be back exploring the galaxy.

The Orville, Season 3, TBA, Hulu