Resident Alien: Alan Tudyk & Chris Sheridan Tease Big Mysteries & Emotional Crossroads

The Syfy original series Resident Alien has had a particularly big year, renewed for a third season ahead of its return from its midseason break during Season 2. Over the course of the second season, disguised extraterrestrial Harry Vanderspeigle (Alan Tudyk) learned that there were other aliens lurking on Earth before acquiring an alien egg while on a trip to New York City. As Resident Alien returns to conclude Season 2, Harry and his friends in the small Colorado town of Patience find the bloody stakes only escalating further.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Tudyk and series creator and showrunner Chris Sheridan discussed how Resident Alien has continued to grow and flourish into Season 2, explained some of the season’s major themes, and praised the cast for bringing both the comedy and dramatic vulnerability to the hit show.

CBR: It’s wheels within wheels this season, with new aliens, conspiracies, and Linda Hamilton on the warpath. How was it pushing the story and challenging the characters in Season 2?

Chris Sheridan: Doing these shows is harder and harder these days, with 550 scripted television shows on. You can’t be dull. The second you’re dull, they change the channel and watch something else. You have concepts in your mind of things you want to do down the line, and when you’re in the writers' room breaking stories, if you feel like you’re at a place when it’s not that exciting, you start stealing from ideas you have for later. There’s another alien race here now -- that’s something I didn’t even want to get into until Season 3 or 4, but the timing seemed right. We moved it up because it seemed interesting, and you have to believe that you’ll always find story to fill in the gaps later -- who knows if that’s true. [laughs]

Most importantly, whatever this episode is that you’re working on right now has to be good and exciting because treading water is death these days. Sometimes you can’t help it, and I feel like there are some episodes where we’re treading water a little bit to tell the story, but, for the most part, you have to drive forward, otherwise you lose your audience, I think. You want it to be a ride! I want people to tune in because something’s going to happen. I appreciate a good slow-burn show, but I don’t think this is that.

Alan, Harry is starting to experience human emotions for the first time. This season, we see him scared and jealous but still with that degree of separation because of his extraterrestrial origins. How is it exploring emotions with that lens in mind?

Alan Tudyk: Luckily, it’s in the script and happens within its own scene with parameters that are set. So far, they’ve come in a rush, but it’s creeping, and he’s just becoming more human, especially by the end of the season. We’re communicating, but I don’t think he’ll ever be as great at communication as a normal human. I don’t think that’d be fun to watch. But he’s starting to have an emotional palette, emotions, and everything that we have. It’s fun. I’m enjoying it, and there’s a whole world opening to Harry with emotions.

In opening up that world, how was it taking Harry to New York in the first half of Season 2?

Tudyk: That was great. I really enjoyed that and liked how it turned out. To be thrust into a big city -- anybody coming from a small town, whether it’s from Colorado or wherever, going into a big city -- your senses are assaulted. For him, it was really fun to put myself inside of his skin and all those people around, the madness, and not to mention the drugs. [laughs] Add on top of that the experience of hallucinogenic acid as he’s wandering through the city, so much of that was really fun. The caper-y feel of finding the clues, hunting Goliath, finding the egg, and the train ride, it was just a whole two episodes’ worth of New York that was just really fun.

In terms of the DNA of Resident Alien, Season 1 was a murder mystery and Season 2 is a conspiracy. How important is having a mystery at the heart of the show?

Sheridan: It is such a big part of the show. The first season was about who killed Sam Hodges, and the second season is about the why and who was behind it. Because the first two seasons do have a bit of a murder mystery, you run the risk of it potentially not feeling like the same show if we didn’t continue doing that. I will say, in Season 3, there is a bit of a murder mystery, in its own way, happening, which is a new one. By the end of Season 2, the Sam Hodges story will be wrapped up, but going into Season 3, there’s going to be some characters trying to solve some crimes, that’s for sure.

Alan, some of my favorite scenes of yours are your scenes with Sara Tomko, blending comedy and emotional vulnerability. How has your rapport with her grown?

Tudyk: You know, they’ve gone through a lot together. She is his number one confidante, and I think that’s great. In those first three [episodes in the second half of Season 2], she does get sick of Harry and just wants to get some space, like we do with friends. Hopefully, if they are truly friends, they end up making up, and they do get closer. That’s part of the process of becoming closer friends. When we’re on set and stuff, we go through these things emotionally. Even though we’re putting on the hat of a different character, you get closer through those experiences.

She is the number one actor that I work with, so it’s just grown and become so much farther than the annoying woman from the clinic. [laughs] It started out as the woman from the clinic who smelled like death. “Why do you smell like death? Like a dead man?” I think by the end of that third episode [in this half] of the season, there’s more trust and understanding between the two of them.

Chris, how is leaning into the rest of your ensemble for the comedy?

Sheridan: It’s a big part of the show. From the beginning, I didn’t want to put all of the pressure on the alien. It has to feel like a full world. The key to the show is having the audience fall in love not just with the alien but all of these characters and want to root for them, be a part of their world and the town they live in. So much of that is casting really great actors, and this ensemble is amazing. They had incredible chemistry together, and they’re all really talented and really funny, but they’re also really grounded and can play really serious stuff. Everyone has had to play serious stuff and will in the second half of this season. They’re all really fun to watch and really fun to write for.

Created by Chris Sheridan, Resident Alien airs Wednesdays at 10 pm ET/PT on Syfy.