Noah Hawley’s ‘Alien’ Adds David Rysdahl

[Nightmare Asylum]

After working with Noah Hawley on the fifth season of his Emmy-winning drama Fargo, which just debuted last week, David Rysdahl has solidified his place in his FX family with a series regular role in his Alien prequel series, Deadline can exclusively reveal.

Details as to his character are under wraps. But Rysdahl joins a cast that includes Sydney Chandler as the meta-human Wendy, Alex Lawther as soldier CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, a CEO, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, and Kit Young as Tootles. Announced as joining prior to Rysdahl was Timothy Olyphant, and while his role has not been confirmed, Deadline hears he'll be playing Kirsh, a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Wendy, a character with the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child.

The new Alien series, exec produced by Ridley Scott, is set in a time period before Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and is the first story in the franchise that takes place on Earth, roughly 70 years in the future. Production began in Thailand July 19, four days after the start of the actors strike, continuing for more than a month thereafter, only with members of the cast affiliated with British trade union Equity. All scripts had been completed prior to the May kickoff of the WGA strike, and production is expected to resume in Bangkok as soon as January.

Over the summer, Rysdahl was seen portraying Los Alamos chemist Donald Hornig in Christopher Nolan's historical epic Oppenheimer, which grossed over $950 million worldwide. Prior to that, he starred alongside Havana Rose Liu in the 20th/Hulu thriller No Exit, and in Edson Oda's Sundance prize winner Nine Days, released by Sony Pictures Classics. Additional TV credits for the actor include Black Mirror and The Family for Netflix, and Bull on CBS. The up-and-comer is repped by WME, Entertainment 360, and Granderson Des Rochers.

https://deadline.com/2023/11/alien-david-rysdahl-joins-noah-hawley-fx-series-1235640308/

[Mr. J]

Maybe next meta human child  Alien deserved better

[Enjoy]

Now get matt damon and ben afflec as military with pulse rifles

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

👍

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm not too familiar with this actor but it's nice to see us starting to get more news about the series.

[Xenomrph]

Wendy, a character with the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child.

Uh

Uh what.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Wendy, a character with the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child.

Uh

Uh what.

Yep. The show centers around Wendy (and other children) who are part of an experiment being done by the Prodigy Corporation, in which these children's consciousnesses are being transferred into synthetic bodies (and with names like Wendy and Tootles floating about, it seems to be playing on the idea of the Lost Boys never growing old in Peter Pan).

Slight spoilery details from the leaked concept art:

Spoiler

We know a Weyland-Yutani ship, the Maginot, crashes into Prodigy City with a cargo of Alien eggs/specimens, and another art piece depicts Wendy wielding swords about to engage in battle with Aliens. We don't any idea yet what the exact correlation (if any) between the Aliens and this "Lost Boys" synthetic project Prodigy may be, however.

[close]

[Xenomrph]

Wow damn that sounds a little stupid.

Also while occasional movies like 'Big' have pulled it off, "literal child in the body of an adult" is a bit of an ethical and creative minefield that I'm always wary of seeing it tackled and I'm not thrilled about seeing it in an Alien project.

[Local Trouble]

I always thought Alien needed a Shazam-like character.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Regarding the ethics of the concept (or rather, the lack thereof), I'd imagine that this is something the show is going to tackle head on – the idea of a corporation stripping away agency and autonomy from these children, for whatever their reasoning may be, definitely isn't going to be shed in any sort of positive light.

As for the actual execution of the ideas, jury is obviously still out on that one.

[Eal]

Wendy, a character with the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child.

Uh

Uh what.

Likely a disabled or neurodivergent character relying on AI and computers to navigate through normally indecipherable organizational and social situations. Either that or a disabled person using a 'Wendy' model droid as an avatar, ala Blue.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Wendy, a character with the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child.

Uh

Uh what.

Likely a disabled or neurodivergent character relying on AI and computers to navigate through normally indecipherable organizational and social situations. Either that or a disabled person using a 'Wendy' model droid as an avatar, ala Blue.

I'm expecting something more sinister than that to be at play, honestly. Maybe outwardly Prodigy might be presenting this innovation as something to help individuals with disabilities, but I think behind closed doors we're going to be seeing something much more nefarious going on with these children in synth bodies.

[Eal]

Wendy, a character with the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child.

Uh

Uh what.

Likely a disabled or neurodivergent character relying on AI and computers to navigate through normally indecipherable organizational and social situations. Either that or a disabled person using a 'Wendy' model droid as an avatar, ala Blue.

I'm expecting something more sinister than that to be at play, honestly. Maybe outwardly Prodigy might be presenting this innovation as something to help individuals with disabilities, but I think behind closed doors we're going to be seeing something much more nefarious going on with these children in synth bodies.

Probably...probably. This is the corporate dystopia of Alien we're talking about.

[oduodu]

ah ...transhumanism

[RIP77]

Wow damn that sounds a little stupid.

Also while occasional movies like 'Big' have pulled it off, "literal child in the body of an adult" is a bit of an ethical and creative minefield that I'm always wary of seeing it tackled and I'm not thrilled about seeing it in an Alien project.

This year  Emma Stone in  Poor Things for example. Movie of year and very creative.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/poor_things




These types of characters were normal in Noah's previous series, LEGION.

-Dan Stevens: A mutant who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age.

-Rachel Keller:

 She does not let anyone physically touch her because by doing so, her mind is swapped with the mind of the person she touches.


-Bill Irwin: A "geek scientist", one of the therapist Bird's specialists.He and Kerry live together in the same body, and can separate at will. Hawley sought out Irwin for his "playful approach to the characters."

-Amber Midthunder: A savant with a "childlike sense of wonder", one of Therapist Bird's specialists.� She maintains a younger appearance than Cary as she only ages when their bodies are separated.

Wendy is  like  Noah style and  this is  an author. Style Noah  within the Alien universe. So it's natural that , he explore those kinds of sci-fi personalities in Alien. 

Is clear that it is a risky Alien series but after more than 30 years sometimes you have jump into the pool... is good. Prometheus is  more Blade Runner than others movies ALIEN . I think than this serie is more Alita, Blade Runner, Ghost in the shell but is Alien in style too. And in 8 hours is a complete styles and tematic  general sfci and Alien/terror. In movie only 2 hours is different.

And even more so when Fede's movie, which is supposed to be more conservative, is released a year before.