‘The Orville: New Horizons’ Stars Jessica Szohr and Anne Winters Talk Character Backstory and ‘Bumpy Ride’ Season 3 (Exclusive)

The Orville: New Horizons is now streaming on Hulu, where the hit sci-fi show moved from its previous home at Fox. Ahead of the new season, series stars Jessica Szohr and Anne Winters sat down with PopCulture.com to talk about Season 3 and how it handles their character’s backstory development. This includes a “bumpy ride,” for Szhor’s character, Lieutenant Talla Keyali, The Orville’s Chief of Security who is of the Xelayan race and first appeared in the series in Season 2.

“Yeah, it’s a bumpy ride for Talla this season,” Szhor said after being asked if New Horizons will reveal more about her character. “She has downs with her career and her relationships, but she discovers where she fits in with the crew along the way, which I think was important to her this whole time. Talla gains some more of Ed’s trust, and he gives her a little bit more responsibility. I think it’s going to be a really fun journey to go on with Talla this season.”

Winters is new to the cast, playing Ensign Charly Burke, who is a passionate, and often indignant, Orville crew member. “The arc of her character may make some changes, which I’m curious to see what the audience takes away from that,” she said. “But she definitely comes in with a point of view after the Kaylon battle where you left off in Season 2. Clearly, because what the Kaylon did at the end of that would make someone’s mind go very narrow-minded towards them.” The actress continued, “I think I’m excited to show Charly’s arc in this season. It really was fun to play, and coming onto this show as such a strong character was challenging but really rewarding, and seeing it all come together is great. I’m excited.”

With the show making the leap from Fox to Hulu, fans might wonder if there was much of a difference going from the network to the streaming structure. When asked about this from the perspective of a cast member, Szohr said she “did” notice changes. “I love working for Fox and Hulu,” she said. “It’s not about that, obviously, but I just want to preface that because I know how the interview’s going to make it sound. I enjoyed obviously both, but I just think the tone of the show altogether feels very different.”

She continued, “I don’t know if that’s because we had more room to play with Hulu and it being streaming or not, but I just think the tone of it… Even aesthetically how it looks, don’t you feel, Anne, that it feels like…” Winters then chimed in, “It also gives a little bit longer of a time… We have more room to make those massive little movies every single episode instead of fitting into maybe a certain timeframe. I don’t know what it was like before, but I will attest to it did feel like a big production. Just from watching season one and season two, season three was upgraded in so many ways. Not only with the ship being redone, it looks incredible, the suits, I notice a difference watching the monitors and seeing how everything just changed.”

Szohr added, “Yeah, I think, like anything, too, you watch something and you kind of be like, ‘Oh, I’d like how this looks,’ or, ‘I want it to look this way.’ So I’m sure in the minds of producers and things like that, you watch and you learn what works and what doesn’t. Because when I watch this from Jump 301, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this just looks beautiful. It’s crispy. It’s fresh. Everyone’s on point.’ It’s really like I want to be if I wasn’t in the show…” Winters then offered, “The worlds that they create are so insane. I wish I could live in the worlds. The CGI that goes into this is phenomenal. It’s really fun to watch.”

The Orville: New Horizons premiered Thursday, June 2, on Hulu, with three 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!