Alex Lawther (“The End of the F——- World”) has scored the male lead role alongside the previously cast Sydney Chandler as the female lead in “Fargo” series creator Noah Hawley’s new “Alien” TV series at FX.
Deadline broke the news and added that Samuel Blenkin (“Black Mirror”) has joined as CEO Boy Kavalier, another main character in the series. Also hopping on board are Australian acting legend Essie Davis (“Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”) as Dame Silvia and Indian actor/singer Adarsh Gourav (“The White Tiger”) as Slightly.
The deals for all these actors were made well before the SAG-AFTRA strike started on July 14th. The series started filming in Thailand on Wednesday, but without the actors who are SAG-AFTRA members which includes the two leads and one other.
As only three of the cast are SAG-AFTRA members, the production has reworked its shooting schedule to delay their participation for as long as possible. Some of the other main cast are members of the UK acting union Equity and thus have been able to film scenes, but all cast were reportedly told they could choose not to work.
Hawley created the series set on Earth in a time period well before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley form the original 1979 film and three of the subsequent sequels. It had been in pre-production for four months and was days away from filming when the SAG-AFTRA strike began.
All the scripts for the episodes were completed before the writer’s strike was called in May. Ridley Scott executive produces the series, which has booked out most of the sound stages in Bangkok and employed 400 Thai nationals.
The project is separate from the Fede Alverez-directed new “Alien” movie starring Cailee Spaeny and Isabela Merced, which is already in post-production.
