Timothy Olyphant is returning to his old stomping grounds at FX, but he’s going to be a long way from Harlan County. The Justified star has signed on to play a major role in Noah Hawley‘s new Alien prequel series. Deadline reports that Olyphant will star in the upcoming series as Kirsh, a synthetic — much like Ian Holm‘s Ash in Alien, or Lance Henriksen‘s Bishop in Aliens. He will be a mentor to Wendy (Sydney Chandler, Pistol), a meta-human hybrid who has the mind of a child and the body of an adult.
The series will also star Alex Lawther (Andor) as CJ, Samuel Blenkin (The Witcher: Blood Origin) as Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis (The Babadook) as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly, and Kit Young (Shadow and Bone) as Tootles. FX is keeping plot details for the series under wraps, but it will take place 70 years in the future, before the events of Alien and its sequels and prequels; it will also be set on Earth, a first for the franchise. It began filming in Thailand before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and continued for a month with its cast members who were part of the British actors’ union Equity; it will resume filming with its full cast early next year.
Who Is Timothy Olyphant?
The tall, rangy Olyphant had his first major role in 1997’s Scream 2, playing one of the film’s masked killers. He went on to play supporting roles in Go, Gone in 60 Seconds, and Dreamcatcher before landing the lead role of Sheriff Seth Bullock on HBO‘s western Deadwood. Following its abrupt cancelation after three seasons, he starred in Hitman and Live Free or Die Hard. His next leading TV part would turn out to be his signature role; US marshal Raylan Givens on FX‘s Justified. Olyphant starred on the series for six seasons before its conclusion in 2015, and recently returned to the role for the miniseries Justified: City Primeval, which aired on FX earlier this year.
He has also made his mark on the Star Wars franchise, starring as the Mandalorian-armored marshal Cobb Vanth on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. He subsequently starred in the Netflix horror comedy Santa Clarita Diet, Amazon‘s musical drama Daisy Jones and the Six, and the Steven Soderbergh miniseries Full Circle for HBO. He can next be seen in Gareth Evans‘ upcoming action thriller Havoc. This won’t be Olyphant‘s first time working with Alien showrunner Noah Hawley. He previously starred on the fourth season of Hawley‘s FX crime anthology, Fargo, as Dick “Deafy” Wickware, a Mormon US Marshal (naturally) on the trail of a duo of lesbian bank robbers.
The Alien prequel series, now starring Timothy Olyphant, is slated to resume filming in early 2024. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. The original Alien movie is available to stream on Disney+.
via Collider