Fans aren’t ready to give up on the sci-fi show The Orville, but the odds of a fourth season actually happening are not looking good at all.
Prior to the writers and actors strikes, actor Chad L. Coleman (Klyden) seemed optimistic that a fourth season could still happen, telling Cinemablend, “We think it’s gonna happen, but it’s still up in the air.” The update gave fans hope that a fourth season could someday become a reality. However, post-actors and writers strike, Coleman’s costar Adrianne Palicki (Kelly Grayson) is singing a different tune.
Adrianne Palicki hints that The Orville season 4 might not happen
In a new appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, Adrianne Palicki made it clear that while there is talk of a potential fourth season, she has no intentions of being involved should it be ordered. “No, no longer doing that. I did three seasons,” Palicki replied when asked by Rosenbaum about her role on the series, in which she played Cmdr. Kelly Grayson.
When asked about whether the show is coming back, Palicki candidly admitted that she “truly doesn’t know the answer to that” question. She did, however, hint that isn’t exactly jumping at the chance to return.
“I think there’s talk that it could possibly be something that certain people want to do…” Palicki said, carefully choosing her words as she confessed the series was a “really difficult show to shoot.”
Adrianne Palicki calls working on The Orville a “horrible” experience
When Palicki revealed to Rosenbaum that the show had only produced 33 episodes over the course of six years, Rosenbaum was truly shocked. Doing the math out loud, he quickly pointed out how that averaged about five-and-a-half episodes a year, which couldn’t be financially sustainable for the cast.
“It became an actual, real issue because there would be so much time in between seasons because wanted to write everything himself,” Palikci said. “At one point, we were like, ‘We have to fight the studio to give us a holding fee or something.” She added that her costar J. Lee (Lt. John LaMarr) reportedly was getting by on “saltines and Gatorade” at one point, calling the whole experience “horrible.”
Needless to say, should the show actually be renewed, it seems highly unlikely that Palicki would return, and we imagine she might not be the only cast member who wouldn’t be interested in coming back unless there were major changes behind the scenes regarding the fees paid to the cast and the timeline for producing episodes.
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