When is The Orville season 4 release date? In 2017 Seth MacFarlane created his answer to Star Trek, with the sci-fi comedy/drama series The Orville.
Its latest adventure, The Orville season 3 landed on Disney Plus in June 2022. The third entry of one of the best sci-fi series saw betrayal, intergalactic alliances form, and plenty of juicy conflicts. But will The Orville return with another season? We’ve searched across the galaxy to find the answers.
The Orville season 4 release date speculation
The Orville season 4 hasn’t been confirmed or greenlit yet, meaning that there’s no official release date either. As it stands, the earliest The Orville season 4 could hit screens is probably 2025, if production begins in 2024.
This does seem unlikely right now though, with co-lead Adrianne Palicki, who plays Commander Kelly Grayson, saying she wouldn’t be returning on the Inside of You podcast. However, we’ll allow you some hype: actor Chad L. Coleman revealed that a “promising meeting” took place between the show’s creator Seth MacFarlane and Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, Dana Walden, in 2023 (via Cinemablend).
“We’re all in the loop and out of the loop. We think it’s gonna happen, but it’s still up in the air,” Coleman said. “There’s so much going on with all of these studios that it’s just like, ‘Well, we gotta settle this thing first, then we can really decide on that thing.’”
“A bunch of that is going on. We hope so. Seth has an amazing relationship with Dana [Walden] and with Disney, who’s running it now. And they said they’ve had promising meetings, so we’ll see.”
The cast and crew contracts for The Orville expired after season 3, so if a new chapter did head our way, it would be after a series of likely long agreements and multiple meetings. All this means that if the comedy series does get picked up, we think The Orville season 4 would most probably arrive in early 2025 at the earliest, given that production likely wouldn’t begin until mid-2024, if at all.
The Orville season 4 cast speculation
The Orville season 4 cast list hasn’t been finalized due to expired contracts and no announcements, but we’re willing to bet the majority of the main players would return, except for Palicki who’s explicitly stated that she’s done with the show.
If the show gets the green light, it makes sense that Seth MacFarlane will return as Captain Edward Mercer. Along with MacFarlane, the majority of the USS Orville crew will likely jump on board for a new season.
However, if season 4 does go ahead, we do know one other person who won’t be in the cast. During the season 3 finale, fans witnessed Ensign Charly Burke – played by Anne Winters – sacrifice herself to save Issac. Since we aren’t expecting to see any ghosts in The Orville season 4, we doubt she would return.
The potential Orville season 4 cast list:
- Seth MacFarlane as Captain Edward “Ed” Mercer
- Penny Johnson Jerald as Doctor Claire Finn
- Scott Grimes as Lieutenant Gordon Malloy
- Peter Macon as Lieutenant Commander Bortus
- Mark Jackson as Isaac
- J. Lee as Lieutenant John LaMarr
- Jessica Szohr as Lieutenant Commander Talla Keyali
We’ll be sure to keep you posted as more casting news and developments head our way.
What would The Orville season 4 be about?
We imagine The Orville season 4 would revolve around the Moclans and Krill attacking Union outposts and declaring all-out war with Teleya as the poster child and justification for escalated conflict.
After season 3’s exciting conclusion, we have a good idea of what The Orville season 4 plot would be. Tensions between the Planetary Union and the Moclans and Krill are still frosty – so you just know that drama is waiting to kick off. It’s all very spicy, and there are plenty of opportunities for more conflict, battles, and space-related antics.
At the end of season 3, we saw the Moclans and Krill form an alliance to try and destroy the Kaylons with a unique weapon. In order to uphold peace, Mercer led an attack against the Krill – which ultimately led to Ensign Charly Burke saving the Kaylons at the expense of her own life.
Since they were saved from total destruction, the Kaylons decided to ally with the Union. But this supposed happy ending has some potential pitfalls; Krill Supreme Chancellor Teleya is currently on Earth getting tried for her war crimes, and we can’t imagine that the Kaylons joining the Union will go down well with her.
Where can I watch The Orville season 4?
If The Orville season 4 gets the green light, it will likely be available to stream on Hulu in the US and on Disney Plus in international markets.
This is where the previous seasons were made available, and we doubt Disney Plus would want to lose such a well-loved show. With that in mind, maybe it’s time to renew those subscriptions and check out everything new on Disney Plus.
How many episodes are in The Orville season 4?
If season 4 happens, we think a new season of The Orville would stick with 10 episodes, like season 3 had.
The show has stuck within the 10-14 range, and we don’t imagine that the episode count would go up after such a long delay. They’ll still be wanting to test if viewer loyalty has held up after all this time, after all.
That’s everything that you need to know about The Orville season 4! For more space-related content, here are all of the Star Wars series ranked and the best Star Trek characters. Or, for more classic picks, here is our list of the best TV series of all time.