After a successful series premiere in January 2021, Syfy's hit original series Resident Alien is returning for Season 2 with even more comedic hijinks as disguised extraterrestrial Harry Vanderspiegle (Alan Tudyk) returns to the small town of Patience, Colorado. Season 1 ended with Harry discovering a sense of humanity, thanks to his friendship with Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko). His bond with Astra pushes him to save humanity from extinction. However, Harry has a long way to go before he realizes he's not the eradicator he came to Earth as, and more mysteries to solve as the town's secret alien in Resident Alien Season 2.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, series creator and executive producer Chris Sheridan teased Harry's journey throughout Resident Alien Season 2. Sheridan hinted at epic things to come for the people of Patience, and promised laughs and major stakes ahead for Harry.

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Chris, with Resident Alien Season 1, you've introduced your characters and their backstories. Now that you know your cast and story moving into Season 2, what did you really want to build upon?

Chris Sheridan: What we wanted to do in Season 1 is to make sure that the character dynamics were solid, that all these people in the town are fully fleshed-out characters, and that there are real things going on with them that, as an audience, we'd feel for them. We understand what they're going through and we relate to them. That was crucial in buying that then Harry came down as an alien and anything these people are doing is going to affect him.

If they were two-dimensional characters and we didn't really care about them, we were never going to buy that Harry cares. The more connected we are to this town and its people, the more likely we were going to buy that Harry's journey is affected by them. That was the plan for the first season, and I think the second season is largely more of the same. With time, we have an understanding of these characters on a certain level. It's expanding the world and the characters a tiny bit and it's feeling more for them, making them more three-dimensional.

D'Arcy, in Season 2, has a love interest, which brings out more of her character. We have a backstory for Sheriff Mike that's going to come out with something that's been plaguing him and makes him more three-dimensional. We have stuff with Asta coming up that's huge for her growth. Anything we can do to connect the audience to these characters, even more, makes the comedy even funnier because we're laughing with them, and it makes the emotional moments bigger because we care more if they're upset.

It also helps Harry, in the first part of this second season, where his journey is really about learning empathy. Going from the first season, where he learned he even had emotions -- like when his heart was beating fast meant fear -- to the next level of it, which is when we're children, we start feeling things, and then we start feeling things in other people and learn empathy. It's Harry's journey towards empathy and maybe starting the process that maybe he can care about people outside of Asta.

Just the nature of coming back to Earth with Max proves it to him -- and he doesn't want to hear it from himself. If he didn't care about Max, he could've just sent him out into space and just gone on to his planet. The fact that he came back to bring Max home has to tell him that he's starting to feel human and care about this kid. Now it's not just Asta, it's Max too. But he's also at this fun place where he doesn't want to admit that so he's going to deny it. He's not going to admit he has any care for Max but we're watching it happen. All these fun things will happen in Season 2 where Harry's acting this part of being an alien not giving a shit. Sometimes, that's the case, but in some cases, he does care. We can see that he's doing it because he's starting to learn he might be a good person. It's that battle within him that Alan [Tudyk] plays so well and is so fun to watch.

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Like you were saying, it isn't that clean for Harry coming off Season 1. Is his octopus buddy in Season 2 kind of serving as that little devil on his shoulder?

Yeah, you definitely picked up on that. It's a little Odd Couple as well, having him battle with someone and giving him someone to talk to instead of just being in his head the whole time for as long as that octopus is there in the second season. It's making him feel bad about the fact that he's becoming human, telling him he's alien and it's against his nature. Harry tries to defend himself but even he can see that he's changing, and he tries to push that change down. He doesn't want to see it or believe that he's becoming something that he doesn't want to become. But I think that's relatable, it's not just an alien doing that.

People do that all the time, going through change but they don't want to change. They pretend they're not changing but they're watching it happen. Every step of the way with Harry, we try to put him on a journey that, even though he's an alien going through it, we can relate to it.

One of the things that's apparent from the start of Resident Alien Season 2 is, while the personal drama is still there, you're really leaning into the wacky comic potential of the ensemble cast, with even Mayor Hawthorne getting in on it.

Absolutely. They're all incredible comic actors and they're great actors all around, especially with the stuff coming up, there's really strong emotional moments for all of them, but they're so funny. One of the great things that happened this year, in the third episode, it's one of the first times we've had them all on the same set together. They're all so good together. They're all good friends. Through this, they've become very tight and have great chemistry together on and off the field. They love to work together and support each other and be in the same room together and it comes across when they're acting together.

With Episode 3, and an episode later on, there's a big chunk where they're all together and it was a joy to have them all together, for me and for them. They enjoyed every step of it, supporting each other and it was a lot of fun to watch. It brings out the comedy a lot because they play off each other. They're all great at improv and the fun that they're having acting is real fun. They're having fun doing it.

Created by Chris Sheridan, Resident Alien Season 2 premieres Jan. 26 at 9 pm ET/PT on Syfy.

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