Noah Hawley's Alien prequel series has gained a major new addition, with The Mandalorian's Timothy Olyphant joining the ensemble cast in a lead role.
According to Deadline, the Justified star, who previously worked with Hawley on season 4 of Fargo, will play Kirsh, "a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Sydney Chandler’s Wendy who is a hybrid, a meta-human who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult."
We assume synth stands for synthetic, or android - sorry, Bishop, artificial person - which have been staples of the Alien franchise ever since Ash lost his head in Ridley Scott's classic.
A full synopsis for the show has not been released, but we do know that it will be set in a time period before the events of the first Alien movie and will be the first story in the franchise that takes place on Earth, roughly 70 years in the future.
The cast also includes Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, a CEO, as well as Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly and Kit Young as Tootles.
Filming began in Thailand back in July shortly after the start of the actors strike, without SAG-AFTRA members, including Chandler. Shooting then continued for more than a month with cast who were affiliated with the Equity British trade union. Production is slated to resume in in January.
“We’re shooting in Bangkok, a half a world away; shooting again in the New Year,” Hawley confirmed in a recent interview. “I got some footage. Some of the first hour was shot before we had to shutdown. It’s stuff to play with and edit.”
Disney/20th Century Studios also has a new Alien movie from director Fede Alvarez in production, which is currently scheduled for theatrical release on Aug. 16, 2024. Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson, Aileen Wu and Spike Fearn are set to star.
The story focuses on "Young people from a distant world who must face the most terrifying life form in the universe."
Spaeny revealed that the film takes place between the events of Alien and James Cameron's sequel while being intervieed on the red carpet of last night's Gotham Awards.
“It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie,” the actress explained. “They brought the same team from Aliens, the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours. So getting to see the original design with the original people who have been working on these films for 45-plus years and has been so much of their life has been really incredible.”