WonderCon 2024: Resident Alien Press

To help promote Resident Alien, cast members Sara Tomko (who plays Asta Twotrees), Corey Reynolds (who plays Sheriff Mike Thompson), and the showrunner and creator Chris Sheridan were at WonderCon.

The sci-fi comedy-drama Resident Alien is gearing up for the big finale of season 3, and the first two seasons have just hit Netflix. (Read my recommendation for the first two seasons here.) Tomko first talked about how glad she was that it is now on Netflix and the show’s fans. “Many of our audience members did not start watching until Netflix. And that’s okay – that’s why we wanted to put it on Netflix so that we could reach more people.” She continued, “But we do have avid fans from the beginning. We have fans from the comic book, people who knew the comic books before the show even started.”

Tomko wasn’t aware of the comic before being cast, although a friend of her husband had heard of it. Her character has grown over the three seasons, and she talked a bit about how it’s gotten lighter for her. “The other day, Alan (Tudyk) came up to me and he was like ‘have you seen the pilot in a while? It was so dark. And it was: I had an abusive husband, I pulled a man through a wall. But it’s definitely leaned a lot more towards the comedy in the last season. And I think it’s been a beautiful journey to see her at the beginning going through such turmoil and grief and shame. I just watched last week’s episode where she has that beautiful moment with her daughter in the car. I just realized what a good mom says, and Asta just realized it too. And she went through this whole journey in the first three seasons trying to make up for that, and sort of parenting Harry in the process and trying to figure out how to make up for lost time. And it’s just been so beautiful to see that evolution.”

If there is a season four (there’s still no word on it), Tomko would like to see her character get a hobby. “I’d love to see what Asta does now that she’s not worried about Harry and not worried about Darcy and not worried about Jay. You can feel it when the writing team is starting to push you in a direction. I can see maybe her going on another date. But I really don’t want to see her like in a full-blown relationship. And there’s so much more to dive into about a female on screen than just who he’s in love with.”

I brought up that one of the things I like about Resident Alien is that Asta and Harry are ‘just’ friends – that there’s no romance between them. Tomko mentioned that there is a group of fans that ship the two, “but I think there’s something way more interesting about having a soulmate and loving each other. And it’s not about sex. There’s so many different ways to love someone. And I think that’s more important for him especially.”

Next up was Corey Reynolds. I asked him about his character growth, as Sheriff Mike started out a bit more cantankerous. “In season one, we had a lot to set up. You know, try to bring everybody’s backstory to the table. And Mike’s didn’t get fleshed out quite as much in season one. But I think what he was dealing with being the sheriff was – there’s already an investigator there who knew the ins and outs of the town way better than he did, which is Deputy Liv. And I think that left him feeling pretty insecure. And so I think a lot of his over-the-top antics were connected to wanting to be seen as the best, and the most informed. You know, he’s from the big city and all this stuff, and it just wasn’t working for him. And every stop along the way, Deputy Liv through her effortless existence was showing up across the board.”

Reynolds continued, “I think he saw that as a threat before, and I think now has come to a place where he doesn’t feel as insecure around her. I think he’s allowed himself to be vulnerable with her. And that changed their dynamic a little bit. She is the audience’s permission slip: I think her acceptance of Mike gives the audience permission to accept Mike and to see his shortcomings as character flaws or someone who’s simply an a**hole. I had someone tell me once that this character was the hardest character to play on the show, because it’s hard to thread the needle of being a likeable a**hole. And I like the fact that we’ve gotten to a place that with Mike when he says weird stuff it’s not really weird, it’s just stuff Mike would say.”

Reynolds was then asked about how his work on Resident Alien differed from his role on The Closer, since they both cops. “If you are a person who is in the industry for the performance art aspect of it, procedurals – for me at least – were fun for like maybe the first three seasons. But the biggest problem with procedurals is that each episode kind of needs to be encapsulated. So every episode has the beginning, the middle, and the end and it’s just over. I love The Closer in and of itself, but procedurals don’t go anywhere. But I like a more serialized storytelling than the procedural aspect of it.”

Finally, we talked to the show’s creator and showrunner Chris Sheridan. He was asked about the various aliens on the show and what may be coming next. “I can’t tell you that because I don’t want to give away anything that might be coming up. There might be something in the finale: you have to wait and see. But we try to take the existing alien lore that’s out there and explore that as much as possible. In the future, I’d love to take the list of aliens that people sort of know about and populate our world a little bit with them.”

If there is a season four, Sheridan was hesitant to say what may be on the board for it. “There’s a lot going on in the finale that is going to dictate where it goes. But I love that we’re embracing more of the alien stuff. I want to expand the alien universe a little bit and ground it as much as possible. I think that’s one of the keys to the show working, which is you have this big, broad alien stuff but it also feels real in its own way.”

Sheridan continued, “And I think what I’d like to explore and make a little more clear in season four is that we’re kind of not safe anywhere, and this is a problem. I’d also like, as Harry moves out of this stage of season three which is sort of an early teen stage, we grow him up a little bit maybe in season four and maybe he has his own friends.”

I asked what his intentions were for the show and what he hopes to accomplish. “Out of all the things that we’re saying, I think the biggest thing I want to say is that as humans, we’re all connected. As different as we may look, we’re all the same. We are weak when we’re alone, and we’re stronger when we work together. I think the message that I’d like to get out there is that we’re best as humans when we learn to love each other and support each other no matter how different we are. So I think that’s one of the reasons that it becomes relatable because it stops being just an alien coming into this world, and feels almost like an immigrant story of someone who might not fit in coming into a new culture or new town and what they have to deal with.”

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Resident Alien season 3 debuted on February 14, 2024. The finale will air April 3, 2024.

For more information about Resident Alien, visit the SyFy page for the series or visit Netflix if you’d like to catch the first two seasons.

Author: Angie Fiedler Sutton

Angie Fiedler Sutton is a writer, podcaster, and all-round fangirl geek. She has been published in Den of Geek, Stage Directions, LA Weekly, The Mary Sue, and others.

She also produces her own podcast, Contents May Vary, where she interviews geeky people about geeky things. You can see all her work (and social media channels) at angiefsutton.com.

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