Timothy Olyphant’s upcoming sci-fi horror TV series,Alien: Earth, already looked great, but a recent teaser trailer shows character footage that makes him seem more like Olyphant’s iconicJustifiedcharacter, Raylan Givens, than previously expected.Timothy Olyphant has had many great rolesthat are often completely different, but there is no denying that he is most recognizable to many audiences thanks to his great Western shows,JustifiedandDeadwood.
In the years since their release, both have been hailed as some of thebest Western shows of all time, with Olyphant’s performances receiving their own praise. In contrast,Alien: Earthlooked like an entirely different type of show with a unique role in Olyphant’s career. The legacy of theAlienfranchise givesFX’sAlien: Eartha lot to live up to, but a recent trailer for the season makes me even more hopeful for the series, thanks in part to a teased trait for Olyphant’s character.
New Alien: Earth Teaser Makes Timothy Olyphant’s Kirsh More Of A Gunslinger Like Justified’s Raylan Givens
His Quick Action Hints At An Unexpected Character Twist
A recent teaser trailer forAlien: Earthhas provided several new character clips that hint at what is to come in the series. Details that were previously released confirmed thatOlyphant will be playing a character called Kirsh, a syntheticwho serves as the mentor of Wendy, the first human-synthetic hybrid. Previous trailers have shown that Wendy has the body of an adult woman but the consciousness of a young girl, hinting at a strange technological update for the notoriousAliencorporation, Weyland-Yutani.
Given what audiences have learned about synthetics from past films, many are relegated to villains or morally ambiguous. However,Alien: Earthseems set to complicate their narrative further by including Kirsh and Wendy as main characters. Additionally, recent trailers have shown that they may be taking on a more action-packed role than previously anticipated,including one that shows Olyphant’s Kirsh quickly drawing and firing a gun, which is much more reminiscent of his days onJustified.
While synthetics have certainly been involved in past action sequences, I associate them more with science and technological advances, and with attempting to stop other characters from killing the Xenomorphs.Alien: Earthcould see both this scientific side and a more action-oriented side thanks to the premise of the crash-landed ship. With Wendy, Kirsh, and the rest of their team attempting to recover the different types of aliens, their shooting skills may be put to the test, perhaps to protect themselves against the aliens or those who wish to get to the specimens first.
It’s A Relief Timothy Olyphant’s Kirsh Is Getting Action Scenes In Alien: Earth
The Series' Synthetic Characters Can Sometimes Miss Out On The Action
The canon of theAlienfranchise is pretty complex and entertaining, but where the series often excels is in the more straightforward action and suspense sequences. Part of what made the original installations so great, especiallyAliens, is that they largely stuck to those aspects, letting the performances and plotting speak for themselves. Newer installations have understandably had to update that a bit, with some going in a very different direction, butAlien: Earthlooks like it may be trying to have the best of both worlds.
No doubt Olyphant’s Kirsh will have some pretty significant differences toJustified’s Raylan Givens, butAlien: Earth’s teased action sequences create an intriguing overlap.
The series format gives creator Noah Hawley more time to play around with the more complex concepts, butAlien: Earth’s trailers do confirm that that is not coming at the expense of action. Especially because you never know how much action a synthetic character will get, it is very exciting to see Olyphant getting to use some of the gunslinging skills that he perfected inJustified. Kirsh even seems to have a similar commanding look while firing the gun.
In general, Olyphant is great across every genre. Some of his earliest work is in horror, so it is fun to see him return to it. However, even with his great comedies and dramas, Olyphant is best known for his work onJustifiedandDeadwood, which gave him plenty of action and shooting sequences to pull from for the new series. No doubt Olyphant’s Kirsh will have some pretty significant differences toJustified’s Raylan Givens, butAlien: Earth’s teased action sequences create an intriguing overlap.
