ALIEN TV SERIES ADDS FOUNDATION STAR, CONFIRMS PLACE IN FRANCHISE TIMELINE

Foundation Sandra Yi Sencindiver has joined the cast of Alien, which has resumed filming in Thailand. The series previously halted production in August 2023 due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

According to Deadline, Sencindiver will appear in multiple episodes of Alien as a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. While the actor will be a recurring star in the first season, there is reportedly a chance for her role to grow in future seasons. Sencindiver is best known for playing Enjoiner Rue Corintha in the second season of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series, Foundation. She will also have a role in the upcoming Netflix series, Geek Girl.

Alien: Romulus Receives a Predictable Rating

Alien: Romulus' rating heavily implies that the upcoming installment will be just as bloody and horrifying as its predecessors -- if not more.

When Does the Alien TV Series Take Place?

A live-action Alien series was first reported to be in development in February 2019, with Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley coming aboard the project as showrunner in December 2020. Deadline noted that the series will be "set towards the end of this century ... a few years before Prometheus, and some thirty years" before the events of Ridley Scott's original Alien movie. Alien will also be the first project in the long-running science fiction franchise to take place on Earth. While plot details remain under wraps, the series will reportedly deal with the emergence of the story’s infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the race between corporations to create new android life.

Initially envisioned as a limited series, Hawley has revealed that Alien will now run for multiple seasons, with a three-act story already mapped out. "I knew that [FX's] desire was for a recurring series, not a limited series, and I had an idea that I was excited about, that I could see the escalation of it from one year to another," he explained in January 2024. "That's where we ended up not pitching them having a bible or pitching them blow-by-blow, but saying, 'Big picture: this is the first movement, this is the second movement, and we're ultimately going here.'"

'Let's Manifest It': Alien: Romulus Star Wants to Join Another Major Sci-Fi Franchise

After starring in Alien: Romulus, actor Cailee Spaeny has her sights set on joining another major science fiction franchise.

Alien Returns to the Big Screen

While there hasn't been a new Alien movie on the big screen since 2017's Alien: Covenant, that's about to change. 20th Century Studios is gearing up to begin marketing the ninth installment in the franchise, Alien: Romulus, which is set to hit theaters on Aug. 16, 2024. Fede Álvarez directed the movie, which is set between the events of 1979's Alien and 1986's Aliens, from a screenplay he wrote with Rodo Sayagues. The synopsis for the movie reads as follows, "On a distant colony, the group finds themselves in a fight for their lives with the titular alien."