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Resident Alien: Linda Hamilton will hunt Alan Tudyk's E.T. on new SYFY show
Linda Hamilton may be done with the Terminator franchise, but her Resident Alien tenure is just beginning. The actress best-known for playing Sarah Connor will enjoy a recurring role on the upcoming SYFY series this summer, the network announced Friday. But instead of hunting androids, she'll be hunting aliens!
Per Deadline (which first reported the casting news), Hamilton is set to portray General McCallister, a high-ranking member of the military who runs a covert operation to find the existence of alien life on Earth. It sounds like she'll be a real foil for Alan Tudyk's main character, Doctor Harry Vanderspeigle. Harry is actually a marooned alien in disguise, grappling with whether or not the human race deserves to be saved.
Mandell Maughan (Bajillion Dollar Propertie$) and Alex Barima (The Exorcist) have also joined the show’s cast. Both actors are playing a pair of agents — Lisa Casper and David Logan — dispatched by McCallister to find the alien.
Per Deadline, Casper is described as looking "soft and innocent," while, in reality, "she’s a high-strung badass." The character of Logan was "dismissed from the military," so it seems like this alien-hunting operation is a real off-the-book/black ops kind of affair.
"I thought [Alan] was brilliant. The whole cast was great,” Steve Parkhouse, co-creator and artist of the Dark Horse comic upon which the show is based, recently told SYFY WIRE. “But Alan’s a star and he has brought something magical and also indefinable to the character. The audience may not be able to figure him out, which might prove to be a good hook."
Resident Alien debuts on SYFY this summer, though a premiere date has yet to be announced.
"I think people were surprised by [the comic's] apparent charm and focus on story and character rather than action. I think that’s why it appealed to people in TV and maybe passed by hardline comics fans," added Parkhouse. "I’d like to tip my hat to Chris Sheridan, who is writing the TV adaptation. He captured the spirit of the books perfectly and I’m confident the show is in good hands."
