The season finale of The Orville: New Horizons was a victory lap

We’re still don’t know whether there will be a season 4 of The Orville: New Horizons

All of the cast of The Orville: New Horizons wants the series to come back for another season and another one. And the fans are right there with them, but as series creator Seth MacFarlane has said, we just don’t know. While the streaming numbers from The Orville’s appearance on Disney+ may help, it could be several months before we get a firm answer. And according to MacFarlane, in an interview with Syfy, he wrote the third season finale to serve as a potential series ending but left it open as well should a renewal come.

There were some fans and critics that didn’t see the season finale, Future Unknown, as a strong enough conclusion to the season or the series if that’s what it comes down to, but MacFarlane says he knew there was no way they could top Domino, the ninth episode of the season. And I don’t think any of us would have wanted the season/series to end with Charlie’s death so it makes sense that it wasn’t the finale episode.

The Orville: New Horizons is about characters, according to Seth MacFarlane

And he wanted to keep the focus on the characters. So it was a great way to draw the attention back to the heart of the series. Ending with a beautiful wedding that didn’t seem like it would be possible when The Orville began was a great way to show us that the people inside the ship are more important than what goes on outside the ship.

"It really does have to be about the people. That’s one of the things that we’ve always made a real effort to keep in focus: that this is a show about the characters. That’s the nucleus of it. Despite the spectacle, despite the size, it’s really about the people. Again, it felt like a way to exhale after the season and just kind of do a little victory lap — at least for ourselves — because we had worked hard and we felt like we had done good work. But also to make sure that as big and as epic as the season had gotten, was to make sure that we could still tell those stories that didn’t need any of that. [Stories] that needed nothing but these personalities interacting with each other. And hopefully, that’s what we did."

While the finale didn’t have the battle scenes and life or death circumstances that have taken precedence in a lot of the episodes this season, it did have a wonderful sense of community and coming together. If this has to be the end of The Orville, at least it was a positive ending, but like the rest of you, I’m hoping for a season four renewal.