Fox is staying in the Seth MacFarlane business.
The network announced Wednesday that it has ordered 13 episodes of a new comedic drama created and executive produced by the Emmy-winning mind behind Family Guy and Ted.
But in a noteworthy twist, MacFarlane will also star in the as yet untitled, hourlong, live-action series, which is set 300 years in the future aboard the Orville, “a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar Fleet.”
“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,” said Fox Television chief executives Dana Walden and Gary Newman in a statement, describing the series as “classic Seth — fresh and funny, incredibly smart, wickedly subversive.”
The network’s long-standing partnership with MacFarlane dates back to the premiere of Family Guy in 1999. The animated series is in its 13th season and has been renewed through the 2016-17 season.
MacFarlane has also been involved as a co-creator or executive producer on the animated series American Dad!, The Cleveland Show and Bordertown, and on the documentary Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, all for Fox.
The network currently plans to air the new series in the 2017-18 season.
