RESIDENT ALIEN
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY
DARK HORSE COMICS SERIES RESIDENT ALIEN IS COMING TO THE SMALL SCREEN. SHOWRUNNER CHRIS SHERIDAN TELLS US MORE
WORDS: TARA BENNETT
2020 WAS A NIGHTMARE year, made worse by humanity’s cumulative stupidity, so maybe what we truly deserve in 2021 is an alien invasion that wipes us all out. The new Syfy series
Resident Alien,
based on the Dark Horse comics created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, pretty much offers that scenario, albeit with a much funnier outcome.
Toplining a TV series for the first time, actor Alan Tudyk (Wash in Firefly) essentially takes on something of a dual role in the show. On the face of it, he’s Harry Vanderspeigle, a doctor in rural Patience, Colorado. But at the same time, he’s also playing the alien who accidentally crash-landed on Earth, murdered poor Harry, and now walks around with the doc’s likeness pretending to be him. The alien just has to sell the ruse long enough to fix his ship and then fulfill his overall mission of destroying Earth.
LOVING THE ALIEN
The comic first appeared in 2012, with five miniseries released so far and a sixth on the way. But it was in 2015 that Dark Horse started developing the title into a potential series. It landed on the desk of long-time Family Guy executive producer Chris Sheridan. The publishers asked him if he was interested in taking a crack at it, and he gave the comic a read. “I absolutely fell in love with it and knew I had a take on it,” Sheridan tells SFX.