Here's an interesting bit of casting news: according to a new report over at Deadline, Justified and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star Timothy Olyphant has joined the cast of Noah Hawley's long-gestating (and, as far as we know, still not officially titled) Alien TV series, which is due to hit FX sometime in 2025.
Hawley's Alien series remains largely shrouded in secrecy, but Deadline's report contains a number of character details that tell us what sort of beast Hawley and company are assembling.
For instance:
"Details about Olyphant’s character are not being disclosed. I hear he plays 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."
Intriguing! The Alien franchise has long featured Synths (or synthetic people), but this bit about a hybrid "meta-human" with the brain of a child and the body of an adult strikes us as something new. I suppose one could make the argument that, technically speaking, the rebirthed Ripley of Alien: Resurrection sorta fit this bill, in that she was born as an adult with a mind that was roughly as informed as that of a young child's, but anyone making this argument sounds like a tedious asshole and we shouldn't humor them.
Want more character names? Here you go:
"In addition to Chandler, Olyphant joins a main cast that, as Deadline reported, 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."
As has been previously reported, Hawley's FX series is said to take place before the events established in Ridley Scott's original Alien movie (where it takes place in comparison to, say, the events depicted in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant remains a reveal for another day). It is further said to take place on Earth. How that particular fact gels with the rest of the franchise's lore is also something we probably won't be clear on until we're actually watching the show.
Hawley's Alien series is currently gearing up to resume filming in early 2024, likely January, with an eye towards debuting sometime in 2025. Still a long ways to go on this one, but stay tuned and we'll keep you informed as further updates roll in.
