‘The Orville’: Seth MacFarlane Talks Season 2 Episode Order, Release Date

Season 2 of “The Orville” will be bigger, but fans will have to wait for it a little longer than expected.

Creator and star Seth MacFarlane said at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Thursday that Season 2 of the Fox sci-fi dramedy is currently being written and will feature more episodes than its freshman run.

“I think it’s going to be at least 14 [episodes],” MacFarlane said (via TV Guide). While that’s considerably less than the typical 22-episode order count for broadcast shows, MacFarlane said that he would “rather do fewer episodes and have them be better content-wise than do 22 and have them be filler.”

Fox originally ordered 13 episodes for Season 1 of “The Orville.” But in November, TV Guide revealed that the network cut the season’s episode order by one. According to the news outlet, the supposed 13th hour of the season will be added to Season 2 of the series — a similar move the network took during the second season of “Lucifer.”

While Season 2’s bigger episode order is definitely good news for fans, MacFarlane revealed that the show will return at a later date. When asked if the new season would be ready by fall, MacFarlane straightforwardly said, “No, there’s too much to do.”

MacFarlane didn’t offer any plot details about the upcoming season, but he promised that it would lean more into the science fiction. “The show was experimental in a lot of ways,” MacFarlane said (via /FILM). “Tone was the biggest experimental part of it. What we found was that we can lean a little more, heavier into the science fiction and not have to worry so much about knocking out a joke every page. The show is an hour and really can and wants to service its storytelling in a way that makes it a priority. The jokes come as they come, the comedy comes as it comes.”

Aside from MacFarlane who plays Capt. Ed Mercer in the series, “The Orville” also stars Adrianne Palicki as Commander Kelly Grayson; Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Claire Finn; Scott Grimes as Lt. Gordon Malloy; Peter Macon as Lt. Commander Bortus; Halston Sage as Lt. Alara Kitan; J. Lee as Lt. John LaMarr; and Mark Jackson as Isaac.