Actress Penny Johnson Jerald was a big part of Castle's ensemble for four seasons, surprisingly losing her job a year before everyone ended up losing their jobs. Thankfully, she'll soon be back in primetime in a big way now that she has joined the growing cast of Seth MacFarlane's upcoming sci-fi dramedy Orville, which has also added up-and-coming actress Halston Sage.
Orville has the potential to be quite unlike anything else on TV, and it's stocking a talented cast that can hopefully pull it all off. Unfortunately, details were not provided by Deadline to clue us in on what we can expect to see from the characters played by Penny Johnson Jerald or Halston Sage. However, we do know that both actresses will be series regulars, so we'll probably be getting to see their now-mysterious personas often enough.
Set 300 years in the future, Orville takes place on the titular spaceship that isn't exactly the most high-quality craft soaring through the cosmos. (Incidentally, Seth MacFarlane was an executive producer on the Cosmos revival.) MacFarlane stars as the ship's captain, Ed, while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Adrienne Palicki will be Ed's first officer Kelly, who also happens to be his ex-wife. American Dad's Scott Grimes will reteam with MacFarlane as Ed's best friend Gordon, who is brought in to pilot the Orville. (Grimes really needs to do some singing in this show, too.) Shameless' Peter Macon and The Cleveland Show's J Lee will play other members of the ship's crew.
Penny Johnson Jerald, who will forever be Larry Sanders' Beverly to me, followed up her Castle stint by joining the DC Universe as Amanda Waller for the online series Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles. She will also be seen in the romance feature Parker's Anchor, and back on the small screen for TV One's dramatic thriller movie Media, which could potentially become a full series.
Meanwhile, Halston Sage is more known for her big screen efforts than those on TV. She did star in the short-lived NBC drama Crisis, but made her biggest splash in 2015 with roles in Paper Towns, Goosebumps and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. She's got more films lined up for 2017, too, with the thriller You Get Me, the novel adaptation Before I Fall and the comedy People You May Know.
It isn't clear when we're going to get our eyeballs all over Orville, but with production happening as 2016 comes to a close, we will likely see the genre-bending series debut in early 2017. Now if only the show could just bring in Jerald's former Castle co-star Nathan Fillion, since he knows a thing or two about what it's like to bring the drama and comedy in space.
