Unlike the first two seasons, the whole third season was written in advance, and scenes from different episodes were shot in a row, based on the location and actors' availability. Jon Cassar and Seth MacFarlane split the direction duties for the 10 episodes so they could work like that.
All the Admirals names featured in The Orville are names of real life United States Navy Admirals or in one case of an Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The Admirals names in featured in the show are Halsey, Perry, Tucker and Christie.
There is also an Admiral named Ozawa, played by Kelly Hu, which is named after Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa from the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The blob-like character Yaphit is named after the actor Yaphet Kotto, who played the character Parker in Alien: Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt (1979).
In an unusual move for a show made in the late 2010s, a detailed, five-foot model of the Orville was constructed and filmed for exterior shots of the ship. the use of large scale models was standard in television and film production up until the 1990s but fell out of favor in the late 90s as CG technology became better, faster, and more affordable. CG was used to supplement the physical Orville model in action sequences, as well as to represent other ships.
The majority of season 1 was directed by various Star Trek series alumni:
- Seth MacFarlane (actor: "Ensign Stewart Rivers," Star Trek: Enterprise (2001))
- James L. Conway (director: Raumschiff Enterprise: Das nächste Jahrhundert (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Star Trek: Raumschiff Voyager (1995), Enterprise)
- Brannon Braga (writer/producer: TNG, Voyager, Star Trek - Treffen der Generationen (1994), Star Trek - Der erste Kontakt (1996); creator: Enterprise)
- Robert Duncan McNeill (director/actor: "Lt. Tom Paris" Voyager, Enterprise)
- Jonathan Frakes (director/actor: "Cmdr. William T. Riker" TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, First Contact, Star Trek - Der Aufstand (1998), Star Trek: Discovery (2017))