How will Chad Coleman’s new role affect The Orville: New Horizons?

The Orville: New Horizons has not yet been renewed for a fourth season.

The Seth MacFarlane-created sci-fi series, The Orville: New Horizons, hasn’t yet been renewed, and fans are keeping an eye out for any news about the future of the series. Though the cast were all released from their contracts, MacFarlane has indicated they all want to return should the series be picked up for a fourth season.

Recently, Chad Coleman, who portrays Bortus’ husband, Klyden, on the series, was cast in the third season of the CW superhero drama, Superman & Lois. According to The Direct, Coleman will be a lead villian for the season, which likely means a larger role for the actor. So if The Orville is renewed this could cause difficulties as Superman & Lois is filmed in British Columbia, and The Orville is filmed in and around Los Angeles.

Chad Coleman isn’t a main character on The Orville: New Horizons, but his character is important to the series.

Coleman has appeared in twenty out of the series’ thirty-six episodes, and most recently, he and Bortus (Peter Macon) reconnected after a separation because of their differences concerning their daughter, Topa. With such a focus on the reunion, it would be weird to not see Klyden in the The Orville’s fourth season.

Coleman is the first of The Orville actors to secure another long-term role outside of the series. While MacFarlane can compensate for his character being away by simply not writing scenes that include him and just having Bortus refer to him (which, again, would be weird), should another actor land a full-time role outside of The Orville, especially a main character like J. Lee or Macon himself, then it could make a renewal more difficult.

These characters all came together to make The Orville the incredible show that it is. That’s not to say that the entire series would crumble without one of them, but it could end up being more than one that becomes unavailable. With no renewal news on the horizon as of yet, it’s natural that these actors will be looking for more work. And if others get contracts for different series, The Orville will lose its crew.

Hopefully, this new gig for Coleman will still enable him to appear on The Orville in the event of its renewal, and fingers are crossed that this series will receive a fourth season renewal before the main cast gets new roles of their own.