Timothy Olyphant joins Noah Hawley’s Alien show, Alien: Romulus movie timeline confirmed

What’s that? You wish there was more news about Noah Hawley’s Alien television series or Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus movie? Well strap in, because last night was a big one for the franchise.

Starting with the TV show, we got some of its biggest casting news yet: Deadline revealed that actor Timothy Olyphant has officially signed on to star in the series. Beyond his work in shows like Deadwood and Justified, Olyphant also had a recurring role in the fourth season of Fargo, Hawley’s previous FX show.

The Alien TV show is set around 70 years before the original Ridley Scott film, and is the first installment in the franchise to take place on Earth. Olyphant will reportedly star opposite Sydney Chandler (Pistol). No details have yet been confirmed about their characters, but according to Deadline Olyphant will play a synth, which is one of the names for androids in this world. Olyphant’s character, Kirsh, will act as a sort of mentor for Chandler’s Wendy, who is a “hybrid,” aka “a meta-human who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult.” Yup, sounds like Alien.

According to Deadline, the cast also includes Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin as a CEO named Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly and Shadow and Bone star Kit Young as Tootles. Presumably, some if not all of these names are placeholders. Not that I wouldn’t watch Kit Young play a character named Tootles though, for the record.

Noah Hawley’s Alien TV show began production in Thailand in mid-July, just after the actors strike began. However, it was only able to film in a very limited capacity using actors who are part of British Equity, rather than SAG-AFTRA; some leads like Chandler weren’t a part of the shoot. Alien only filmed for around a month before shutting down. It’s expected to go back into production in early 2024, most likely in January.

“I got some footage. Some of the first hour was shot before we had to shutdown. It’s stuff to play with and edit,” Hawley told Deadline during a recent interview. “I’m excited to get back in there.”

Alien: Romulus movie will take place between the first and second Alien films

Moving on to movies, we also got an exciting update about Alien: Romulus, the upcoming film helmed by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe). This one is being executive produced by Alien creator Ridley Scott himself and is even more secretive than the television show, though we did hear recently that Scott is very pleased with how the movie is shaping up.

The new Alien movie will star Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim Uprising). Spaeny was on hand at this year’s Gotham Awards for her new movie Priscilla, where she stars as the late ex-wife of Elvis Presley. The actor slipped in a tease for Alien: Romulus that gave us some brand new information.

“It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie,” Spaeny told Variety. “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.”

It’s exciting to hear that this new Alien movie is bringing back the team who created the xenomorphs for James Cameron’s Aliens. The titular alien changes visually a bit from film to film, but even today the effects work on Aliens holds up surprisingly well.

It’s also interesting to hear about the timeline. At the end of the first Alien movie, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) goes into cryosleep after surviving her encounter with the xenomorph. 57 years have passed by the time she’s revived at the beginning of the sequel. That leaves a pretty sizable gap for Alvarez to play in; Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, lived a full life during the time her mother was in cryo and is an old woman by the time of the second film. Perhaps Alvarez’s Alien movie will feature her, similar to how the Alien: Isolation video game did? Could Spaeny even be playing the character?

For now, it remains a mystery. But Spaeny certainly sounds pretty hyped to get to work. “My first film was big-budget sci-fi,” she said, referring to Pacific Rim Uprising. “I feel like I’m going back to that world. And I have so much fun. I like trying to do as many different things as I can. So I swapped my high heels and my beehive for spacesuits and lots of wire work… I love watching those old ‘70s, ‘80s action sci-fi films. And I’m such a fan of that IP and Sigourney Weaver. It’s legendary to get to be a part of it.”

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