Huzzah! Seth MacFarlane's The Orville Celebrates Season 3 Going Back Into Production With New Set Photo

seth macfarlane's ed talking to kelly in the orville season 2

The past year has seen various TV shows become affected by COVID-19-related production delays and, as a result, many viewers have gone some time without seeing their favorite shows on their screens. Fans of The Orville would know this better than most people as the show hasn’t aired a new episode since 2019, thanks to the pandemic. However, it looks like fans finally have a reason to celebrate, as the show has now shared a new behind-the-scenes photo that indicates that production on Season 3 has resumed!

The Orville director and executive producer Jon Cassar recently posted a BTS photo to Twitter, which shows the production team in the middle of a night shoot. The post was then retweeted by the show’s official Twitter account with a sweet caption. You can check out the post down below:

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With any kind of TV production, it definitely takes a village to make things work, and that’s no different for The Orville. Jon Cassar’s post is sure to get fans pumped for the start of the new season, and it’s cool that he also used his tease to shout-out the series’ hard working crew.

Recently, signs have been pointing to The Orville re-entering production on Season 3. Not too long ago, Jessica Szohr -- who fans know for playing Orville chief of security Talla Keyali -- took to social media to post a flashback photo and express her excitement about eventually returning to the set. And this time, she won’t be alone as she’ll have her new baby to help run lines with her.

She and her co-stars are likely incredibly pleased to be back to work because, as mentioned, it’s been a long road. The Orville Season 3 originally began filming back in October 2019 before production was forced to shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Production finally resumed in December of that same year, but things would be shut down yet again in January 2021 due to a coronavirus surge.

The Orville writer, director, producer and creator Seth MacFarlane was quite eager to get things rolling again. However, he appeared to remain upbeat while work was stalled, even making a joke about how the major gap in time would affect filming. He’s also opened up about what he loves about the new season and the series as a whole.

It would seem that Capt. Ed Mercer and the rest of the characters of The Orville are a step closer to their way back to us. Though because the Hulu series has not been given a return date, it’s hard to say when we can expect the new season to start. Nevertheless, it’s good to know that the show is, at the very least, actively in production on new episodes.

You can catch up on The Orville by streaming the first two seasons on Hulu.

Erik Swann
Senior Content Producer

Erik Swann is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He began working with the publication in 2020 when he was hired as Weekend Editor. Today, he continues to write, edit and handle social media responsibilities over the weekend. On weekdays, he also writes TV and movie-related news and helps out with editing and social media as needed. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he received a degree in Broadcast Journalism. After shifting into multi-platform journalism, he started working as a freelance writer and editor before joining CB. Covers superheroes, sci-fi, comedy, and almost anything else in film and TV. He eats more pizza than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.