Timothy Olyphant cast in the Alien series

[Nightmare Asylum]

https://twitter.com/DEADLINE/status/1729268072434045047

Timothy Olyphant is reuniting with Noah Hawley and FX, signing on for a major role in the upcoming Alien series. Olyphant, who recurred on Season 4 of Hawley's FX anthology series Fargo, is set to star opposite Sydney Chandler in Hawley's prequel to the Alien franchise, sources tell Deadline.

Details about Olyphant's character are not being disclosed. I hear he plays Kirsh, a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for 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.

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.

Executive produced by Ridley Scott, the new Alien series 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 on the show began in Thailand July 19, four days after the start of the actors strike, without SAG-AFTRA members, including Chandler. Filming continued for more than a month with cast who were affiliated with the Equity British trade union.

Production is slated to resume in early 2024, 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 recently. "I'm excited to get back in there."

All the scripts for Alien were completed before the WGA strike was called in May.

Olyphant has been a fixture at FX over the last decade and a half. He headlined the network's long-running hit drama Justified and recently starred in and executive produced the limited series followup, Justified: City Primeval. In addition to his major recurring role on Season 4 of Fargo, Olyphant also was a series regular on Season 2 of FX's Damages. He is repped by UTA and Shelter PR.

Yooooo this rocks! Love Olyphant so much.

[MudButt]

AMAZING.

[PortugueseXeno]

What?

Damn, this is BIG.

[Mike’s Monsters]

Fantastic news. He's f**king amazing. Deadwood is an all-time favorite of mine and he's sooooo good in everything I've seen him in since.

[BlueMarsalis79]

What a great casting.

Between him and Cailee Spaeny, we are doing pretty good.

[PortugueseXeno]

What a great casting.

Between him and Cailee Spaeny, we are doing pretty good.

https://media.tenor.com/jz5siTqAdk4AAAAC/larry-david-seinfeld.gif

We are eating well when it comes to casting, but i need Fede to atleast give us something more to feed.

A teaser would be nice, given he already has a director's cut.

[SiL]

Great casting.

f**k me that character description though.

[Corporal Hicks]

Fantastic actor. I can really see him as Kirsh.

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

This is curious, though what they detail about Kirsh if mishandled could be immature, juvenile, silly, though Lance Henriksen who portrayed Bishop described playing the character like in a 12 her old mind set, not sure if the tone of this character is to be portrayed for humour or if it's serious.
Generally in Alien films Synthetics are the most intriguing characters who's actors Ian Holme, Lance Henriksen, Winona Ryder, Michael Fassbender, "Charlize Theron??? Whether or not sure an android" have given top notch performances.

[skhellter]

somehow people seem confused but Kirsch is the mentor
Wendy is the hybrid with the mind of a child and body of an adult

[Mr. J]

Wendy child brain vs evil  Aliens 

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

@skhellter due to how that piece is written

"Details about Olyphant's character are not being disclosed. I hear he plays Kirsh, a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for 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."

Unless there's an error it describes him as a Synth, Wendy shes's a Hybrid, they both have physical synthetic bodies white fluid instead of blood etc but Wendy carries a human consciousness.

@skheltter your right in that Kirsch being the mentor role is very likely to be serious, sophisticated and calculated likely more Ash and David and less Bishop and Walter.


@skheltter your right in that Kirsch being the mentor role is very likely to be serious, sophisticated and calculated likely more Ash and David and less Bishop and Walter.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Yeah, the phrasing in the article is a little clunky for anyone approaching the material without really being in the know, but Wendy is definitely the lead child character with her human brain/consciousness transplanted into a synthetic body.

Kirsh is simply listed here as being a synth - no idea if this means he is a standard android as we know them to be from all of the previous films, or if he's another android chassis with a human consciousness piloting it a la Wendy, but I'm inclined to think the former, with him as a more traditional android.

[Ingwar]

[pmaz11]

This is FANTASTIC! Always been a huge fan of his & very curious to see how he'll do in this role actually.

Excited for this series that much more now for sure!