The Orville's Anne Winters Reveals The Coolest Thing She Got To Do On The Show

It must be fun to be a character on "The Orville." In addition to all the neat sci-fi space stuff, you get to hang around co-creator (and star) Seth MacFarlane and wonder if he'll do the next take in Stewie Griffin's voice just to crack everyone up on set. That's the gig you want. The "Star Trek" inspired show just finished its 3rd season — but its first on Hulu — which, for some reason, led to it being rebranded as "The Orville: New Horizons." Since the series continues where it left off in Season 2, the new title (or sub-title) is a bit of a head-scratcher. Maybe after two seasons airing on Fox, the new horizon is the universe of streaming? Or perhaps it refers to new cast members, like fiery ensign Charly Burke — played by Anne Winters.

Winters ships aboard as the new navigator, but she is immediately one of the regulars — you can tell because her name appears in the opening credits along with the other principals. Charly hails from another starship that was destroyed in a battle with the Kaylon robots, and the fact that one of them named Isaac (Mark Jackson) is a member of the Orville's crew pretty much fuels her story arc. You see, in that attack, she lost her best friend. Or lover. Or friend with benefits. Something. So she's kind of a hater.

Between joining the adventures, making new friends, and trying to make Isaac feel like dirt — which she kind of pulls off even though he's a robot without emotions, so, well played — Winters got to do a lot of fun things in her role. But what did she think was the coolest?

You might think Anne Winters had a blast operating the spaceship or time-traveling, or even getting to sing with helmsman Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) — a likely outcome of working with Seth MacFarlane, who often finds room for a little song and dance in his shows. But while the actress enjoyed the whole "Orville" experience, it was actually something more physical and adventurous that really stood out. When asked by TV Line what was the coolest thing she got to do was, Winters replied, "When I got to jump out of the plane. That was fun. I loved that, that was my favorite day." So there you go; clearly, this is a woman who likes to be in on the action.

Ultimately though, Charly sacrifices herself to save the very robots she has come to detest. It's a noble decision in the penultimate episode of Season 3, and while viewers never get the chance to be overly invested in the character, it's a sad end nonetheless. There are interesting parallels with the Hemmer character in Season 1 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," who also meets his demise admirably in the penultimate episode of that show, which aired recently on Paramount+. And in both cases, the character arcs were conceived that way from the beginning. The final frontier indeed.

But don't feel too bad for Winters. Her brief, but memorable tour of duty on "The Orville" is likely not the last we'll see of the talented performer. And seeing how she almost made a robot cry, it's probably a smart idea to stay on her good side.