On the day of the photoshoot for FX’s anticipated summer blockbuster, its star was missing. A text from Sydney Chandler’s agent confirmed her arrival: “She’s coming.” Minutes later, her publicist sent a contradictory message: “No. She is not coming. Spoke to her just now. Her stylist and glam are not responding. She’s also very sick.”
Chandler, who stars as Wendy in “Alien: Earth,” was scheduled to appear on Variety’s cover alongside co-star Timothy Olyphant and creator Noah Hawley. Despite agreeing to be photographed, Chandler had indicated the day prior, through representatives, that she was unwilling to participate in a standard video interview. Protracted negotiations followed, continuing into the morning of the shoot itself.
Initially, a representative for Chandler cited the actor’s concern about playing a game with “two older men”—referring to her co-star and showrunner, aged 57 and 58, respectively. The segment, a lighthearted test titled “How Well Do They Know Each Other?,” has been a staple for subjects from Ariana Grande to Ryan Reynolds. In a show of good faith, Variety offered to share sample questions. Chandler’s team responded with a list of questions the publication would never ask, including, “How many ‘Alien’ films are there?” Shortly after, she decided she was uncomfortable with any on-camera game. Then, on the morning of the shoot, after her agent’s persuasion, she was reportedly on her way—until she reversed her decision one last time.
Navigating actor relations is a familiar challenge for journalists, but this situation was unexpected. At 29, Chandler is an emerging talent who grew up adjacent to the industry—her father is Emmy winner Kyle Chandler—but was raised outside of Austin, not Los Angeles. In a prior conversation, she had been enthusiastic about the show, though candid about its demanding production.
“I’m just a private person,” she explained in a subsequent phone interview, framing her decision as a matter of setting boundaries rather than a response to a specific problem. “I’m new to press—it’s a bit out of my comfort zone. I was more than happy to talk about anything and everything about the show; that’s what I’m here to promote.”
Hawley, a veteran TV creator behind five seasons of “Fargo,” was also disheartened by Chandler’s absence. “The show is built around Sydney’s character, and the work she did as a professional was tremendous,” he said afterward. “I’m disappointed that my female-centric show, based on a female-facing franchise, does not have my lead actress on the cover. It felt awkward to be there with Tim without her.” Hawley added that he had not discussed the decision with Chandler, stating, “I tend to feel like that promotional relationship that everybody has with the Disney Corporation is their own. I don’t have to showrun the publicity.”
The situation is particularly unfortunate because Chandler delivers a standout performance as Wendy—a bio-engineered hybrid with the consciousness of a child in an adult woman’s body, navigating the universe of one of cinema’s most iconic franchises.
Chandler now leads a series that FX hopes will become its next cultural touchstone, following hits like “Shōgun” and “The Bear.” Much like “Game of Thrones” or “The Last of Us,” “Alien: Earth” reimagines familiar IP, landing squarely between prestige television and blockbuster genre fare. Hawley estimates he spent eight years on the project, from initial concepts to a final race to complete visual effects for its premiere. For Chandler, the role carries the potential to transform her career, just as the original 1979 “Alien” turned Sigourney Weaver into an icon. “She’s truly a star,” Hawley remarked, despite his disappointment, “and the world is going to see that.”
Chandler’s character, Wendy—named by Hawley for the adventurous girl in Neverland—is a new-generation counterpart to Weaver’s Ellen Ripley. Set in 2120, two years before the events of the first film, the series brings the franchise’s extraterrestrial horrors to Earth. But it cleverly pivots to larger questions about the threats humanity creates for itself, depicting a future where megacorporations govern society and compete to transcend human limitations through technology.
“All I tried to do is think one or two steps ahead,” Hawley said. “The planet is heating up, and the seas are going to rise—it’s going to be a hot, wet planet that we live on.” Timothy Olyphant, the show’s most recognizable star, plays a cyborg executive working to remake humanity, while Samuel Blenkin delivers an inspired turn as a bratty tech-king CEO.
“You’re born, you live, you die,” Olyphant’s character tells Wendy, dismissing the ordinary human experience. Yet Wendy’s quest to find her brother keeps her tethered to her own humanity, forcing her to choose a side as alien creatures close in. When asked about stepping into a franchise known for its feminist icons, Chandler said, “For my own mental well-being, I had to step away from thinking about those expectations. People are going to love it, people are going to hate it—that’s how it works.”
The “Alien” franchise has proven remarkably resilient. After four films led by Weaver, two “Alien vs. Predator” offshoots, and two philosophical prequels from Ridley Scott, last summer’s “Alien: Romulus” successfully returned to the series’ creature-feature roots. “Alien: Earth” charts a new course, existing in parallel to the film franchise while abandoning plot elements from Scott’s prequels. “Everything doesn’t have to fit together the way you expect from Marvel,” said FX Entertainment president Gina Balian. “Fans don’t expect that in this universe. It doesn’t have the same pressure.”
Still, the pressure is immense. Bringing the franchise to television is a significant gamble for a network on a hot streak. After the success of the epic “Shōgun,” FX is again making a massive bet, this time on a project certain to face scrutiny from dedicated fans. “It feels like a good fit, but it could be a total disaster,” Olyphant said of joining the series. “That’s a very exciting place to work from.”
The project’s journey began eight years ago when FX first approached Hawley. At the time, the film studio was unwilling to share the brand. But after Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox and FX, the series became a reality. David Zucker, of Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, recalled that early television pitches were rejected because they couldn’t match the cinematic quality of the films. “The last thing we wanted to do was produce anything conventional,” he said. The new landscape of television, combined with Hawley’s vision—proven by his successful adaptation of “Fargo”—convinced Scott and FX chairman John Landgraf.
Hawley, a novelist and cerebral showrunner, was drawn to the franchise’s surprisingly sparse mythology. “There’s surprisingly little mythology across seven movies,” he noted. “It was great to not have to jerry-rig a mythology into what’s existing, but to just start again.” The series reflects contemporary anxieties about capitalism and climate change. “Noah’s writing about what he sees in front of him,” Olyphant observed.
The show also introduces fresh horrors. Hawley aimed to recapture the feeling of discovery from the first two films by creating new creatures that invade personal space in unfamiliar ways. The concept of a child’s mind in an adult body, inspired by Hawley’s own children, was a delicate line to walk, but he calls coaching the actors through these performances one of his proudest achievements.
The production itself was a monumental undertaking. Halted during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the shoot was enormous, with Balian confirming its scale was “bigger” than that of “Shōgun.” Filming in Bangkok, Thailand, presented both opportunities and challenges. Production designer Andy Nicholson praised the city’s natural “patina” of mold and humidity for creating the grungy, retro-futurist look fans appreciate, but noted the logistical strain of operating across 20 stages in three different studios.
The team’s approach was to work in the spirit of “Alien” without simply recreating it. Similarly, Hawley expanded on fringe elements of the source material, like the franchise’s AI characters, to explore their deeper ramifications. Olyphant compared the experience to his work on “Deadwood.” “I went into this thinking, ‘It’s quote-unquote ‘Alien,’ but I’m not sure it’s ‘Alien,’” he said. “If you take the monster away, you still feel like you got a good story.”
Olyphant, known for his roles in “Deadwood,” “Justified,” and Hawley’s “Fargo,” was struck by the creative freedom on set. He recalled wanting to bleach his hair for his robotic character: “The conversation was with Noah, and no one else. I was working for him and only him.”
Chandler, a self-described “sci-fi nerd,” was immediately drawn to the script. In March 2023, while Hawley was filming “Fargo” in Calgary, she impulsively told her agent she wanted to fly to Canada to knock on his door. She had another major film offer, but the role of Wendy “was going to be much more of a challenge, in a beautiful way.” Having previously appeared in FX’s “Pistol,” she was a known quantity to the network. After a dinner with Hawley, she submitted her audition tape.
The casting was surprisingly swift. “John Landgraf thought she was a star,” Hawley recalled. “It was a friendly room; we were rooting for her.” Once on set from February to July 2024, however, Chandler felt the immense weight of the production. “We had around 600 people on set every day—the call sheet was a book,” she said.
Originally aspiring to be a writer, Chandler fell into acting during a college theater class. Her early life was spent outside the spotlight, a fact reflected in a LinkedIn profile listing post-college jobs like barista. To prepare for Wendy, she initially studied child psychology and took a children’s karate class, but found it only created anxiety. Instead, she wrote down three words to guide her performance: “observant,” “instinctual,” and “honest.”
Chandler herself comes across as unusually observant. “I find that I am calmest when I’m working in choppier water,” she said, adding that she often did push-ups before a take to connect with her character’s physicality.
The production also navigated the 2023 Hollywood strikes. With all scripts written and much of the cast under the U.K.’s Equity union, Hawley attempted to continue filming before the shutdown. He later joined a group of showrunners who pushed for a resolution, believing their intervention helped end the standoff. “A significant part of my life has been spent making these eight hours,” he reflected.
Looking ahead, Hawley hopes to move production if “Alien: Earth” is renewed. “Season 1 is the proof of concept,” he explained, citing the logistical challenges of filming in Bangkok. “If it works commercially, then Season 2 is about building a model upon which we can envision making a Season 3, 4, 5.” The series is designed to be ongoing, and Hawley says, “I believe that endings are what give a story meaning, so I have a sense of where I’m going with it.”
Chandler also hopes for another season. In our final conversation after the photoshoot incident, she reflected on what the role taught her. “I learned a lot from this character, and she taught me to listen to my gut, to stand up for what I believe is right, and honor what you know your body is telling you,” she said, the subtext clear. “She gave me a lot.” That includes, it seems, the prerogative to walk away and let her work speak for itself. For now, she is taking a moment to breathe. “You step off a job like this and question: Who am I? Where am I? What just happened? Then you see the end result and find a pride in that as well.” She paused. “With difficulty comes growth.”
Editor’s note: The wording of how “Alien: Earth” fits into the larger world of “Alien” was changed to say it exists in parallel to the film franchise.
