Alien TV series: Essie Davis, Alex Lawther, and more are in the cast

Filming is officially underway on Alien TV series that Fargo TV series creator Noah Hawley has been developing for “FX on Hulu” – with the project having to film around cast members who are on strike with the Screen Actors Guild. We’ve previously heard that the series will star Sydney Chandler of Pistol… but Chandler is in SAG, and therefore isn’t currently on the Alien set in Thailand. Deadline reports that Chandler’s co-stars include Essie Davis (The Babadook), Alex Lawther (The End of the F*cking World), Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror), and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger).

Filming began on Wednesday. Deadline has heard there’s a total of three SAG cast members, and “the production has reworked its shooting schedule to delay their participation for as long as possible.” Other main actors are members of the UK acting union Equity, and Equity actors have been told they’ll be sued for breach of contract if they walk off set in solidarity with their SAG co-workers. Deadline was able to confirm for sure that Equity-affiliated actor Lawther has been working on Alien.

The writers strike had no impact on the show, because all of the episode scripts were completed before the strike began.

FX head John Landgraf has previously revealed the timeframe the Alien TV show is set in. He told Deadline, “There are some big surprises in store for the audience. Alien takes place before Ripley. It’s the first story that takes place in the Alien franchise on Earth. So, it takes place on our planet. Right near the end of this century we’re in — so 70-odd years from now. Ripley won’t be a part of it or any of the other characters of Alien other than the alien itself.”

A late-2090s setting would place the events of this show in between the events of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Landgraf has also said, “The Alien cinematic universe is a world that’s sort of dominated by large corporate entities, and Weylan-Yutani has been an important component of the movies. There are references to that corporation in this show. But it actually takes place in the territory of a different corporation that Noah invented.“

Lawther is known to be playing the male lead, a soldier named CJ. Blenkin is playing a CEO named Boy Kavalier. Gourav’s character is named Slightly, and Davis is playing Dame Silvia.

Ridley Scott is producing the Alien TV series through his Scott Free banner

A list of everything we know about the Alien TV series can be found at THIS LINK. Are you looking forward to this show? Let us know by leaving a comment below.