The Orville is heading to Disney+…and Doctor Who might be too?

There was a time when Disney+ was the streaming platform for strictly family-friendly fare, but those days are becoming a thing of the past. Just last week the platform added its first R-rated movies with Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Logan. While those are undeniably adult films, they’re also based on Marvel comics, so the move makes sense even if it does represent a notable shift in the streamer’s content.

Now the news has broken that Disney+ is soon to become one of the new homes for Seth MacFarlane’s comedic science fiction drama The Orville. According to Deadline, all three season of The Orville will be heading to Disney+ on August 10.

While this isn’t quite as big a leap for Disney as the R-rated Deadpool movies, it’s still interesting because The Orville is a bit more comfortable exploring complex social themes than most of Disney’s content. At the same time, the show is currently being produced over at Hulu, which also falls under Disney’s umbrella. Internationally, The Orville is already distributed through Disney+. So really it’s already all under the purview of the Mouse, anyway.

Series creator Seth MacFarlane sounds pretty excited about the move. “I’m thrilled to bring all three seasons of The Orville to Disney+. Making this show has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my career, and I’m immensely grateful to Disney for providing us the opportunity to expand our Orville community further. I can’t wait for new audiences to experience this series.”

Hear, hear. Anything that gets The Orville in front of more eyeballs is a good thing in my book. The show’s third season, The Orville: New Horizons, has been outstanding.

Speaking of New Horizons, it has two new episodes coming to Hulu on Thursdays. That means that the show will premiere on Disney+ the week after its season finale airs on its sister streaming platform. As of now, the show is scheduled to remain available on both Hulu and Disney+.

Disney+ trying to obtain streaming rights for Doctor Who?

Another interesting story to come out of the rumor mill is that Disney is trying to get the streaming rights for the upcoming 14th season of Doctor Who. Bloomberg reports that Disney may be in negotiations with the BBC to become the worldwide streaming home for the show’s upcoming season, which will see Ncuti Gatwa assume the role of the Doctor as longtime Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies returns.

Because of a variety of complicated rights deals, Doctor Who has always been something of a hot potato in the streaming space. Primarily it airs on BBC America (which is co-owned by the BBC and AMC), with its episodes currently streaming over on HBO Max. The Bloomberg report notes that these talks are in their early phases and may or may not pan out; all the publication’s sources only spoke off-record.

But if Disney+ did become the home for the newest season of Doctor Who, that would signal a really interesting development for the streamer. Unlike The Orville or Deadpool, Doctor Who is not even remotely under the Disney company umbrella. It would mean Disney+ is starting to branch out beyond its own content. We’ll see if it actually happens!

In the meantime, all three seasons of The Orville land on Disney+ on August 10.

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h/t The A.V. Club