Seth MacFarlane is headed for a brave new world…
Seth MacFarlane is set to star in and executive produce an original sci-fi dramedy show for Fox. The first series will consist of 13 episodes.
The show will be set 300 years in the future, and follow the crew of the Orville, a ‘not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar fleet.’ It’s unlikely that the ship will be shaped like a duck and guided through the universe by the ghostly hand of Keith Harris, to the planet Emu; inhabited solely by giant purple ostriches. But anything can happen.
Strange new worlds won’t be the only challenges those aboard the ship face, as the ‘motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before.’ Red shirts beware! Carnivorous purple ostriches have you in their sights!
To stand out, MacFarlane’s show will have to run from the usual sci-fi clichés and camp. No racially stereotyped extraterrestrials or tin foil covered, bin shaped robots venting coolant all over the place. Instead, it must give us a glimpse of a new dystopian timeline, littered with monuments to Supreme Leader Trump and ostrich overlords.
“I’ve wanted to do something like this show since I was a kid, and the time finally feels right”, said MacFarlane.
Fox Television Group CEOs, Gary Newman and Dana Walden said: “For almost two decades, we’ve enjoyed an incredible collaboration with our partner and friend Seth MacFarlane. He’s one of the smartest, funniest, and most talented people we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with-a great guy who’s also had such an impact on both television and popular culture. Seth has one of the most original voices-in every sense of the word-and we’ve been waiting for him to bring us a project as special as this one. It’s classic Seth-fresh and funny, incredibly smart, wickedly subversive and undeniably Fox.”
The untitled show is set to begin filming this autumn and debut in 2017.
