Seth MacFarlane

Boldly going where his space-loving heart has always dreamed...

- Tara Bennett

Mention the name Seth MacFarlane and most people think of the creator of Family Guy, or maybe the voice of cuddly-but foul-mouthed Ted. A few might even think of him as the guy who revitalised Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey in 2014. One thing’s certain: no one immediately thinks “starship captain”. He aims to change that in his new series, The Orville, a comedy drama set in the distant future. Conceived and written by MacFarlane, the show also casts him as Planetary Union Captain Ed Mercer. In the pilot we meet a despondent Ed, derailed by a wrecked marriage that’s ruined his ambitions to captain his own exploratory ship. But then he’s given command of the modest USS Orville, piloted by his BFF – and his ex-wife just happens to be his First Officer (Adrianne Palicki). Yes, it’s messy, but that means space is now ripe for laughs. With the keys to the sci-fi genre now in his hands, MacFarlane tells SFX why it’s the time to keep looking up…

What was exciting to you about creating a space exploration series set 400 years in the future?