‘The Orville: New Horizons’ EPs Talk ‘Difficult Questions’ and ‘Ramifications’ in New Season (Exclusive)

The Orville: New Horizons sees the hit sci-fi series jump from Fox to Hulu for its new episodes, but fans won’t find the show’s structure changing too much. Ahead of the new season, PopCulture.com had a chance to sit down with executive producers Brannon Braga, David A. Goodman, and Jon Cassar to discuss where the show would go this season. This includes asking “difficult questions” and finding out the “ramifications” of The Orville Season 2 finale.

When asked about how the show approaches controversial topics, Goodman explained, “Well, it always starts with, what is the subject that we want to talk about? And then right away, how do we make this an organic part of a science fiction story? So in that episode one story where we’re dealing with something that’s very heavy, because of the character that’s dealing with it, it’s automatically science fiction, but we don’t in any way shy away from the difficult questions. I have to say, of all the jobs I’ve ever been on as a writer, this writer’s room and the conversations we have of trying to get at the root of what it is we want to say, what do we want the audience to think, or how do we want them to think about it? that’s always priority one, but it’s also through the lens of an entertaining, exciting science fiction story. So those things go hand in hand.”

Goodman then went on to address the events of Season 2 and revealed questions the creators knew had to be answered. “In this case, I think we were really starting with something that was important to us was, we want ramifications from the Kaylon attack last year,” he said. “How did this affect the human beings who suffered incredible loss because of that attack? And then how does that affect Isaac? And I think that starts in a real place of, we want reality. And that was a huge thing that happened last year and we wanted to see, what are the ramifications of that?”

The Orville’s second season ended in April 2019, and the third season, New Horizons, just debuted on June 2. Meaning there was more than a three-year time period between episodes. While fans might think the creative team spent this time tinkering with the story, Bragga explained that this was not the case. “All of the scripts were written ahead of time. We prepare the scripts before shooting begins. Though there of course were rewrites and things that Seth did along the way, the pandemic put a pause, almost, John, I’m guessing midway through production.” 

Casser replied, “Pretty close. Yeah. Halfway.” Bragga continued, “But the scripts were what they were. And it’s funny, I was thinking about sitting in the writer’s room and doing these scripts, you take for granted that you’re writing these giant episodes and really putting just anything you want down on the page and then John has to do it.”

With a show like The Orville, it can be challenging to take the scripts and film what’s been written, but this is something that Cassar — who has helmed eight episodes of the show — welcomes with open arms. “So episode three [of New Horizons] is a fine example of, as a television director, even on 24, you’d go through it and you’d go, ‘Okay, there’s this, there’s this. Okay. And now there’s the big one. There’s the big scene. That’s the one that’s going to take the time.’ Well, on episode three it was one of those episodes it’d be like, ‘Oh look, we’re in New York doing a Broadway thing. Wow, that’s huge. Now we’re here. Now we’re in a lake.’ It never ended. Bragga then chimed in, joking, “It was irresponsible, John. You can say it.”

Cassar continued, “After every one of those, I virtually went in to the line producer, who’s the guy that controls the money and all of that, and just going, ‘Are you reading this…?‘ But then of course it’s exciting because then it’s like, ‘Good. Let’s do all that. Let’s do it all.’ I mean, it’s very exciting. Yeah. It’s different, and that was the one that really stuck out for me because it just had so many different things happening in one episode.

The longtime TV director added, “We really push the envelope. We really push it in a way that is creatively really satisfying for all of us because we virtually… I was telling the crew all the time, ‘You’re never going to have another experience like this. This is a one of a kind, we can do anything we need to do to make these shows what was written.’ And that’s rare. That’s incredibly rare in television. So it was quite a great experience.”

The Orville: New Horizons premiered Thursday, June 2, on Hulu, with six episodes now streaming. Fans can also go to Hulu to catch up on past seasons of the series. For more coverage of The Orville: New Horizons, including more exclusive cast interviews, stay tuned to PopCulture!