Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for Resident Alien season 4!
After four acclaimed seasons,Resident Alienis coming to an end on SYFY and USA Network, and the cast and creators behind the series have shared their thoughts with us at San Diego Comic-Con 2025. Based on Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s graphic novel of the same name, the sci-fi comedy series has followed the misadventures of the titular extraterrestrial as he crash-lands in Patience, Colorado and attempt to disguise himself as local doctor Harry Vanderspeigle. Befriending his head nurse, Asta, Harry begins developing a compassion for humanity and turns to protecting them from other alien races out to destroy the world.
Resident Alienseason 4has seen Harry, Asta and D’Arcy shocked by the revelation that a Mantid, initially disguising itself as Harry, is on Earth and killing various people and animals in the Patience area. Meanwhile, the trio are also at work trying to finally put a stop to the Greys' efforts to reclaim Kate’s baby and give up their designs on Earth. With just a few episodes remaining, it was revealed thatResident Alienhad been cancelled by USA and SYFY, bringing it to an end with the season 4 finale.
In honor of the show’s appearance atSan Diego Comic-Con 2025,ScreenRanthosted Chris Sheridan, Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Alice Wetterlund and Corey Reynolds in our suite to discussResident Alienseason 4. The group shared their reactions to the cancellation news, including why they weren’t all that surprised by the network’s decision, as well as the biggest lessons they’ve learned from their time on the sci-fi comedy hit, and what advice they’d give to their characters back in the pilot if they were able to go back in time.
Resident Alien’s Cancellation “Wasn’t Brand-New News” For The Show’s Team
“…Every Season, We’ve Been Told, ‘They Might Cancel It’…”
While announcements of renewals and cancellations are generally the case going into a show’s final few episodes of a season,Resident Alien’s axing came as something of a surpriseto fans given it was just before the show’s panel at SDCC 2025. However, for Sheridan and his cast, not only was it not a surprise,it’s something they’ve seen coming for a few years now, just waiting for the eventual decision by the network. As such, the creator/showrunner sought to make sure fans weren’t left hanging.
“A year ago, when we started the season, I was pretty sure that this is how it would go down,” Sheridan said. “So, in trying to figure out what we were doing creatively for season 4, I made a decision, back then, to finish telling the story. I didn’t want to end up in a situation where we had cliffhangers, and it was left untold, and then we got canceled after that. So, we sort of took it upon ourselves to end it our own way.”
[We knew] that you never know, something else could happen, but we were prepared for this, certainly.
For Tudyk and Reynolds, however, they both had their own humorous takes on whyResident Alienwas cancelled,with the former chuckling as he expressed, “I saw it coming from the financial collapse of 2007”. The Sheriff Mike actor agreed with his Emmy-nominated co-star “that’s when it began”, humorously saying one could “trace the roots back” from SYFY and USA Network’s decision to “after the big bailout”.
Tomko expounded on Sheridan’s feelings about how it was “quite surreal” to work on every season ofResident Alienas she and her co-stars were consistently told “They might cancel it”, only for the show to keep running. The Asta actor likened it to the situation inThe Boy Who Cried Wolf,questioning if the sci-fi comedy was “ever going to end”, only for them all to agree “We just want to end on our terms” and get it to a place where “it feels good for us and for the fans”.
“So to finally have that phone call,” Tomko recalled, “Chris said, he called us individually — it felt very surreal. I almost feel like I’m not quite sure that I’ll process it until January, when we’re not shooting.”
Reynolds, Tudyk and Wetterlund all turned to joking about Tomko’s analogy,acknowledging there “was definitely something different about this time when the boy cried ‘wolf’”, as this time, they all heard the wolf coming. “And we laughed, and he was like, ‘No, I’m super serious you guys. This wolf is whooping my a–. I need some help over here’,” Reynolds said with a chuckle. “We were like, ‘This guy.'”
The Show Taught Them All To Flip The Script On Their Normal Characters
“I’m Going To Have To Reel It Back In A Little Bit.”
Having played their characters in, and lived in the wacky world of,Resident Alienfor nearly five years, the group all acknowledge they will be taking away some big lessons from their time going into future projects. For starters,Tudyk and Reynolds both joke they “have to reel it back in a little bit” with their future roles, with the former admitting “I might go to 11 now” given he’s been living “in the reality of an alien” for long enough that “anything can be justified” with his acting.
“So, any behavior I exhibit, no matter how wild it is, can be justified by who I am,” Tudyk explained. “And in the story itself, the world was very strong that way. It was rooted, and I couldn’t break out of it, and it was amazing for that. So, probably now, going back into more pedestrian-type jobs, I’m going to need to bring the spectrum [of what I do and] funnel it down.”
Reynolds also explained there’s a likelihood that he’ll have to pull back on improvising on other sets the way he did on the sci-fi comedy, recalling conversations withResident Alien’s script supervisors in which they had to remind the star"we’d like you to stick to the script" after going off on some unexpected tangents while playing Sheriff Mike.
“[They’d come] over to me and say, ‘The line is, ‘I need you in my office at nine o’clock.'’,” Reynolds shared. “And [I would say], ‘What did I say?’ And them saying, ‘You said, ‘Hey, what are you doing after work? Do you want to maybe go grab a beer and maybe go by a titty bar? Or do you want to maybe go to Universal Studios and ride some rollercoasters? Because I got a bunch of stuff I got to do, I got like $20 in my pocket.’ That’s what I’m going to have to get used to is toning it down, coming back into the realm of pulling back in. [Chuckles]”
For Wetterlund, on the other hand,she actually foundResident Alien"demanded more" from her on the side of drama, having previously starred in the “similar-type” TBS seriesPeople of Earth, albeit not requiring as much drama as comedy, for which she has “always felt extremely confident as a comedic performer”. Admitting to having “a lot less confidence” when she started playing D’Arcy, she praised the experience with the role, her co-stars, particularly “feeding off [Sara’s] energy” and the directors of the show helped her “learn so much”.
I have a lot more confidence in myself as an actor because of this experience. And I’m really proud of the work that we did.
Tomko shared a similar outlook on her time onResident Alienwith all of her co-stars, feeling Asta has let her “play the straight man” and “do a lot of the drama versus the comedy” throughout the show’s run, but that after four seasons,“she’s starting to finally make jokes and have a laugh”. The comedy of the show, particularly Tudyk’s outrageous work as Harry, even led Tomko to attend a clown class, which she just recently graduated, and has given her confidence “to stand out a little bit more” in future productions.
“[I can] try things and just not worry so much about it,” Tomko expressed. “I think I was a little bit like Asta in that way, where I was always a little [bit of a] people-pleaser, wanting to make everybody happy. And now it’s more about just what’s right for the character [and] what’s right for the moment. So I’m going to tone it up.”
Sheridan, having previously garnered five Emmy nominationsduring his tenure onFamily Guy, has spent the past decade “full-time” working onResident Alien, and while he hopes to be “lucky enough to do this again” and create/showrun another property,the creator will “search for a cast that is near as good as this one” and pray to “get a group that’s nearly as talented” as his cast and creative team. He praised everyone involved as being “so incredibly professional”, not having “a bad one in the bunch” and for “giving you options” to work with.
They add things you didn’t expect to happen. They add physicality you didn’t expect to happen. They all get along. The chemistry is incredible between them. You never get that.
The Cast Have A Few Plot-Related Points Of Advice For Their Characters
They Would Also Comfort Themselves As Actors
As they gear up to say goodbye to the show, the group were all asked what advice they would give theirResident Aliencharactersif they could travel back in time and talk to them about the pilot. Tudyk, for starters, had more of an acting assurance for himself,joking that he would tell himself not to take “a clowning class between seasons 1 and 2”, even if he was tempted, as he recalls watching himself in season 2 and feeling he got “a little out of control” with Harry’s performance there.
Tomko similarly found she would give herself some creative advice,telling her younger self to “have a good time the whole time"since they would get four seasons out ofResident Alien. “When your job is on the line every season, and you’re not sure, there’s a little fear undercurrent there,” Tomko expressed. “And even though we did have so much fun, I’m sure there were days that I probably let that get to my head. So I’d love to just be like, ‘Hey girl, you’ve got seven years ahead of you. Four seasons. Go for it.'”
For Wetterlund and Reynolds, however, they both felt they would give their characters, and even themselves, a bit of plot-related advice for D’Arcy and Mike. The latter laughed as he shared that he would tell Mike to “listen to Deputy Liv”, given much of the show sees the Patience Sheriff ignore many of her ideas and her belief in aliens. The former actually had a mix of advice for herself and D’Arcy,asking the former “How would you behave if you knew it was all going to be okay”, while posing the same to her younger self and knowing she’d respond with “shut the f–k up”.
Check out our previousResident Alienseason 4 interviews with:
Resident Alien’s final two episodes air August 1 and 8, with prior episodes available to stream on Peacock.
Resident Alien
Cast
A television adaptation of the comic book series, Resident Alien is a sci-fi comedy that stars Alan Tudyk as an alien who crashes on Earth with one mission - destroy humanity to save the planet. When Tudyk’s character takes the identity of a doctor, he arrives at a small town and begins to act the role preparing his plan. As time passes, he develops human emotions against his will - but his plans are further complicated when he meets the son of the mayor - who can see his actual appearance.
