Jon Favreau to direct pilot for Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi/dramedy series

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is currently hard at work developing his latest project for Fox, a sci-fi/dramedy series by the name of Orville, and he's just secured the talents of THE JUNGLE BOOK's Jon Favreau to direct the pilot. The hour-long series has already been given a thirteen-epside order and Favreau will remain on board as an executive producer as well as serving as a consultant on the series once the pilot wraps.

Seth MacFarlane tweeted that he "could not be happier to have the brilliant, multitalented Jon Favreau directing our new Fox pilot," which is set "set 300 years in the future, the show follows the adventures of the Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar Fleet. Facing cosmic challenges from without and within, this motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before." In addition to executive producing the series and writing the pilot script, Seth MacFarlane will also star as Ed, the captain of the Orville. Adrianne Palicki will also star as Ed’s ex-wife and the newly appointed first officer of the Orville, as well as Scott Grimes, who will play Ed’s best friend and the Orville’s pilot. Peter Macon and J Lee are also set to star in the series.

Production on Orville will begin next January and the series is expected to premiere at some point during the 2017-18 broadcast season. I haven't enjoyed everything MacFarlane has done, but Orville sounds interesting enough, even at these early stages, to get me to check the series out once it debuts.