Posted in: Hulu, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: disney, hulu, seth macfarlane, The Orville

The Orville: Recent Disney, Hulu & Seth MacFarlane Moves a Good Sign?

Could recent moves involving Disney CEO Bob Iger, Hulu, and Seth MacFarlane lead us one step closer to a final decision on The Orville?

If you've been seeing Seth MacFarlane's face around lately, much of that has to do with the celebration surrounding the 25th anniversary of FOX's animated series Family Guy. But with an entire skid of questions still surrounding the fate of Hulu's The Orville – and with it being nearly two months since we pitched the idea of MacFarlane going the "Rick and Morty" route with the series – we thought we would look at some recent developments that might play a factor in fans finally getting an answer. Setting aside sideline issues such as the pandemic and SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes, we've been making the case that the two big factors that have contributed to the delay are MacFarlane's growing production & voice acting responsibilities and the uncertainties on the Disney side when it came to the overall future of Hulu – and CEO Bob Iger's control over the Board of Directors. Well, we had some interesting happen since we last checked in – let's take a look:

Welcome to Disney+, Hulu! As it dots the I's and crosses the T's on finalizing ownership of the streaming service, the end of March saw Hulu officially bundled into Disney+. Though Hulu still remains a standalone app, the move was a dramatic departure from how things were sounding back in February 2023 when Iger got folks talking by floating out the idea of selling Disney's interest in the streaming service. Having that level of streaming stability goes a long way to settling things down enough for programming decisions to be made.

Bob Iger For The Win! After weeks upon weeks of saber-rattling by activist investor Nelson Peltz and former Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo over Disney having become "too woke" and not working in the best interest of the company's investors, a lot of folks in the media got very nervous. The feeling out there was that there was a very good chance that Iger and his allies would take a big hit when the Board of Directors vote went down earlier this month. And then the Disney shareholders voted – making it clear that Iger & his team's vision for the company was a much better option than what Peltz, Rasulo, and their slate had to offer. With that out of the way, we have another level of stability in play – because it's tough to make big decisions when you're not sure if you're going to be in that same position two weeks or two months from now. With Iger emphasizing the importance of entertaining viewers first and foremost, green-lighting a popular franchise already under its umbrella could be the right move.

The Hulu/"Family Guy" Factor: During the PaleyFest event honoring the long-running animated series' 25th anniversary, MacFarlane revealed that Family Guy will have two exclusive episodes for Hulu later this year – most likely Halloween-themed and Christmas-themed episodes. Right off the bat, we know that's good news for MacFarlane – someone who hasn't exactly been too thrilled with his show airing on FOX after all of its connections with Rupert Murdoch's company and FOX "News." But it also shows that MacFarlane and Disney/Hulu still have a strong enough business relationship for MacFarlane to begin offering original episodes to the streamer. MacFarlane & Disney/Hulu still doing business together is definitely not a bad thing…

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