Orville (TV series)

Orville is an upcoming comedy-drama science fiction television series created by Seth MacFarlane that is set to premiere on Fox during the 2017–18 season.^[1]

Premise

The series follows the crew of the exploratory ship Orville. It is set 300 years in the future.

Cast

• Seth MacFarlane as Ed, captain of the Orville
• Adrianne Palicki as Kelly Grayson, first officer of the Orville and Ed's ex-wife
• Scott Grimes as Gordon, pilot of the Orville and Ed's best friend.
• Peter Macon
• J Lee
• Halston Sage
• Penny Johnson Jerald

Production

Production on the pilot episode is expected to begin in late 2016, and the rest of the episodes are expected to be produced in the spring of 2017.^[2] On August 24, Jon Favreau signed on to direct the pilot.^[3]

Development

MacFarlane originally wrote Orville as a spec script, which was picked up by Fox on May 4, 2016. The network ordered 13 episodes. It will be the first live-action TV series created by MacFarlane, as well as his first live-action starring role on television.^[2]

Following the project's greenlight, MacFarlane stated, “I've wanted to do something like this show ever since I was a kid, and the timing finally feels right. 20th and FOX have been good to me for many years, and of course, Dana and Gary have been fantastic bosses and true pals, so it was a no-brainer to come to them with the project. I think this is gonna be something special.”^[1]

In a joint statement, Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of FOX, said “For almost two decades, we’ve enjoyed an incredible collaboration with our partner and friend Seth MacFarlane. He’s one of the smartest, funniest and most talented people we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with – a great guy who’s also had such an impact on both television and popular culture. Seth has one of the most original voices – in every sense of the word – and we’ve been waiting for him to bring us a project as special as this one. It’s classic Seth – fresh and funny, incredibly smart, wickedly subversive and undeniably FOX."^[1] The series title was made official on August 19.^[4]

Casting

On July 29, 2016, MacFarlane's role was revealed to be Ed, the captain of the Orville, while Adrianne Palicki had been cast as Kelly Grayson, Ed's ex-wife and the newly appointed first officer of the Orville, and Scott Grimes, who voices Steve Smith on American Dad! (another show created by MacFarlane), was cast as Gordon, Ed's best friend whom he hires to pilot the Orville.^[5] On August 19, Peter Macon and J Lee were cast as series regulars.^[4][6] On October 31, Halston Sage and Penny Johnson Jerald joined the cast.^[7]

References

External links

• Orville at the Internet Movie Database