According to Deadline, Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet, Justified) has joined the cast of Noah Hawley’s (Legion, Lucy in the Sky) upcoming Alien series on FX. The series is a prequel to the Alien franchise, which was created by Dan O’Bannon (Alien: Covenant, Prometheus) and Ronald Shusett (Alien: Reuerrection, Aliens).
Olyphant has previously worked with Hawley on the anthology crime series Fargo on FX.
Deadline has reported that he could be portraying Kirsh, a synth mentor and trainer for Sydney Chandler’s (Pistol, Don’t Worry Darling) character, Wendy. Wendy is a hybrid human with the body of an adult and the brain of a child.
Along with Olyphant and Chandler, the cast of the series includes Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger, Hostel Daze) as Slightly, Alex Lawther (The End of the F***ing World, The Imitation Game) as CJ, Kit Young (Shadow and Bone, The School for Good and Evil) as Tootles, Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities) as Dame Silvia, and Samuel Blenkin (The Witcher: Blood Origin, Black Mirror) as Boy Kavalier.
Hawley’s Alien takes place on Earth roughly 70 years in the future, before the events of the first Alien movie and Sigourney Weaver’s (Avatar, Ghostbusters) Ripley existed.
The scripts for the series were finished before the start of the WGA strike in May. It is reported that the series will start production again in early 2024, most likely January, according to Deadline. Production initially began in Thailand on July 19, four days after the SAG-AFTRA strike began. The cast members who were affiliated with the Equity British trade union were able to film for over a month.
“I got some footage. Some of the first hour was shot before we had to shutdown. It’s stuff to play with and edit. I’m excited to get back in there,” Hawley said to Deadline.