The Orville has wrapped production on the long-awaited season 3

(L-R) Peter Macon as Bortus, Scott Grimes as Gordon Malloy, Penny Johnson Jerald as Claire Finn, Seth MacFarlane as Ed Mercer, Adrianne Palicki as Kelly Grayson, J Lee as John LaMarr, Jessica Szohr as Talla Keyali, and Mark Jackson as Isaac in The Orville

AUGUST 26, 2021 - In case you missed it: filming for the long awaited third season of the Trek-alike series The Orville has finally wrapped. Series creator Seth MacFarlane made the announcement earlier this month, and the news was picked up by comicbook.com.

Posting to social media, MacFarlane said, “And that is a wrap on season 3 of The Orville!  Thank you to our incredible cast and crew for all their tireless and brilliant work, and I sincerely hope this is not the last time we all go to space. #TheOrville”

And that is a wrap on season 3 of The Orville! Thank you to our incredible cast and crew for all their tireless and brilliant work, and I sincerely hope this is not the last time we all go to space. #TheOrville

— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) August 11, 2021

MacFarlane praised the visual effects team for their work on the upcoming season in a second post, which read, “The visual effects masters at @fusefx have raised things to the next level for #TheOrville season 3 — can’t wait for you all to see what they’ve created!” FuseFX is a Los Angeles based visual effects company known for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Deadwood and TNT’s Snowpiercer.

The visual effects masters at @fusefx have raised things to the next level for #TheOrville season 3 — can’t wait for you all to see what they’ve created!

— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) August 10, 2021

The Orville first premiered on Fox in 2017. Following the second season, producers announced that the series would move to the streaming platform Hulu. It wasn’t long before nature hit the brakes on The Orville -and nearly every other film and television production- with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a May 2020 update from MacFarlane, crews had filmed “about half” of the third season and were in the middle of filming an episode when pandemic restrictions were put in place. Filming on the series would not continue until December of 2020. The long wait may well be worth it, as producer Tom Constantino assured fans on Twitter that each episode in the third season will be up to fifteen minutes longer than previous episodes.

In the interim, Dark Horse Comics released New Beginnings and Launch Day from The Orville writer David Goodman. Also known as Seasons 1.5 and 2.5, each story is a two-issue series of “episodes” of The Orville, meant to provide greater clarity to fans and bridge the gaps between the seasons.

There’s no word yet as to when season three is expected to air. The first two seasons are available to stream now, only on Hulu.