SDCC ’25: RESIDENT ALIEN cast takes their final bow at San Diego Comic-Con 2025

On Friday, July 25, 2025, Resident Alien‘s final San Diego Comic-Con panel occurred in Ballroom 20. Moderated by TV Guide Magazine senior writer Damian Holbrook, the panel included showrunner and executive producer Chris Sheridan alongside some of the show’s stars, Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, and Alice Wetterlund. The Beat was at the panel, live skeeting the emotional moment.

At the show’s farewell panel at SDCC, most of the discussion was dedicated to looking back at the incredible series based on the Dark Horse Comics series of the same name. The show follows an alien who crashes onto Earth and assumes the identity of small-town Colorado doctor Harry Vanderspeigle. Although the show previously aired on SYFY, the fourth and final season is currently airing on USA Network, which, according to Sheridan, may be a good thing for fans who are hoping to see future on-screen iterations of the series. As he told The Beat in an after-panel interview (which we will post next week at the latest), USA is known to make film adaptations of its most beloved properties.

Start writing those letters now, Resident Alien fans!

A look back at Resident Alien

Photo Credit: Ollie Kaplan

“These actors have been able to handle anything thrown at them,” said Sheridan, “and no offense to the writing, elevate it, and make it emotionally bizarre.”

But with the actors giving so much of themselves to their characters, what has the series given them in return?

“You guys have lived with these characters for so long, said Holbrook. “You’ve had four seasons and worked with them so much longer than that, so how has playing these characters changed you?”

“My laugh has gotten a little out of control,” joked Tudyk, who plays Harry Vanderspeigle on the show. “My personal laugh, I mean, and I out myself in movie theaters.”

Tomko, who plays Asta Twelvetrees, said, “This show completely changed my life, and Asta is someone I will cherish for the rest of my life. She’s a lot more conservative than I am. I don’t wear leather jackets or jeans most of the time, but I took my Asta jeans home. And now I’m wearing them.”

Wetterlund, who plays Asta’s BFF, D’arcy Bloom, and is also good friends with Tomko in real life, looked back at the moment she first met the actress who plays Asta while they were filming the show’s pilot.

“I was in wardrobe on the pilot,” Wetterlund recalled, when the show’s costumers said, “We just had the actress who played Asta here, and she’s never worn jeans before.”

“How has someone never worn jeans? What a Weird, freakish person!” Wetterlund’s story continued. “Then, I met you.”

“Mike is very close to my heart,” said Reynolds, who plays Sheriff Mike Thompson on the series.

However, what excited Sheriff Mike’s actor about the role was when Sheridan gave him the go-ahead to improvise some of his lines. “Getting an opportunity to do that, and learning to trust that I can do that, is probably how [the role] changed me,” Reynolds added. “I feel more confident in myself. Not just when I’m out and about walking around strutting, but overall, I feel free to be more confident.”

Sheridan was then asked how he determined who could handle the show’s blend of comedy and drama.

Tomko said she auditioned with a scene alongside Tudyk where his character, Harry, was taking intestines out of a cadaver. “I was like, you’re so weird,” recalled Tomko, and he was like, “What’s wrong with this?” as he was “holding intestines.”

As for Reynolds, he recalled being allowed to improvise in the audition before being asked to perform a scene, which ultimately was cut from the show’s pilot episode. “I guess it wasn’t that good,” he laughed. “It was good enough to keep me the job, but not to make the cut.”

As for Wetterlund, she was only in two scenes. “So it was the bar scene,” Sheridan noted, and “then the last part of the pilot she was in, which wasn’t even in the script.”

He continued, “She was so good in the earlier scene that when we were shooting the last scene, I told them, ‘Can you fly her back here for that last cemetery scene and give her a line?’ When she got here, she was in the cemetery scene. It was pretty much like, ‘We’re going to put the camera on you, and say something funny.’ And you said that line that ended up being in the script.”

In response, Wetterlund joked, “You didn’t know when you hired me if I could act or not. I didn’t know either, so we were rolling the dice.”

Following up on Wetterlund’s statement, the panel’s moderator, Holbrook, asked Sheridan for more insight into how he, along with the rest of the writers’ room, maintained the balance of comedy and drama in Resident Alien. There are so many scenes where a joke would work but might dilute the emotion.”

Sheridan responded, “That is a balance that we had to learn very early on. The key to it on this show is that all the comedy had to come from grounded characters. So that it would still be funny, it all had to come out of the characters. As long as we did that, then the emotional connection moments would still work.”

“The X factor that we had was Harry, whose grounded reality place was much more heightened, higher than everybody else’s,” he continued. “If we had a scene where Mayor Ben (played by Levi Fiehler) was sucking milk out of a cow’s teat, that would be very broad and not in harmony with the film. But if we have the alien climbing under a cow and sucking out of its teats to get milk, it plays.”

“It’s ridiculous, but it plays within Harry’s reality. You can do a scene like that that’s incredibly funny, but still have emotional stuff.”

Here, Tudyk chimed in, “The cow was really upset.”

“I think they filed a complaint,” Wetterlund bantered back. The cow was like, ‘Human resources?’ They’re why there’s no season five.”

Wetterlund then continued to reflect on her early days filming the show: “I remember shooting the first scene at the bar in the pilot, and that’s when I got terrified because I realized, ‘Oh. I have to play this character, and I also have to react to this person who, if I ever met in real life, would be terrifying at first.’ Because the first time I saw Alan as Harry, I was like, ‘Oh no, how am I supposed to do this?’ The other thing is that the other characters have to befriend him and deal with him as a neighbor, but D’arcy had to date him and want to date him.”

So it ended up informing the character, both comedically and dramatically, because I thought, ‘Who would want to date this guy, even a little bit? Who would want to date somebody who seems so dangerous?’ That person is kind of broken inside,” added the D’arcy actress. “It helped me inform who D’arcy was.”

Alan Tudyk discusses directing himself

Photo Credit: David Yeh/USA Network/SYFY

Holbrook, who noted that he had the opportunity to see the actors work on set, then asked Tudyk about what it was like to direct episodes of Resident Alien.

“It was hard and a lot of fun,” Tudyk said about the experience. “I learned a lot about myself. It’s tough to direct yourself, and I’ve done it now several times.”

He continued, “I prefer when I’m acting to get done with the scene and somebody goes, ‘Oh, I thought that was great when you did that thing, and I loved it.’ And then, I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any memories from that.’ I go into a thing [when I’m acting], and then come out the other side.”

“When you’re directing, you have to kind of be watching with another eye your fellow actors, so you’re not as in it as you would normally be. And then, you’re playing multiple versions of yourself… Just the worst.”

When asked how the cast felt about working with Tudyk as a director, Wetterlund joked, “We didn’t know we were cancelled yet, so we couldn’t talk about what we really thought.”

She then clarified that the episodes in which Tudyk directed were “some of the most fun” she had on “this whole series.”

“I love being directed by you,” she added. “We’re both funny. We’re both cut-ups. And I love that you get that I’m funny, and we laugh all the time. But it was so fun to learn from you that way, and it was very valuable to me.”

Sheridan agreed, “Alan did an amazing job directing himself playing a character who was pretending to be another character. It was pretty amazing to watch, and honestly, I feel like his episodes were some of the strongest I’ve seen.”

“It was really fun,” added Tomko. “I wasn’t sure how you would direct yourself when you and I were in a scene, and then you invited your amazing, talented wife to the set, an incredible visionary and director herself. And it was so cool to see the two of you interacting. She’s showing you your footage, and you’re seeing what you needed to do. Then, I get to watch you as an actor, put it on, and return to the scene with me. You always had these great moments with the jokes in the scenes, a little bit like a choreography, and I loved that.”

“As the director, I have more tools in my tool kit for telling a joke,” responded Tudyk to Tomko’s comment.

“Our budget is tight, which changes things. You have no time. Sometimes it’s like everybody gets two takes. But people are used to it in the cast and don’t notice it. There’s like being good actors, being professional about everything, and being able to deliver those high-stakes moments that make the caliber of show you need.”

Remembering the cast of Resident Alien

Photo Credit: James Dittiger/USA Network

Some of the show’s leading actors did not attend the SDCC ’25 panel, so Holbrook gave the attending cast a moment to praise their fellow cast members’ talent.

“Every time Elizabeth Bowen walked onto the set, I cracked up,” recalled Reynolds of his costar, who plays Deputy Liv Baker on the show. “She is a sniper with these jokes.”

He continued with more praise for Bowen, saying, “You know it was an instant connection. We didn’t meet until the table was read, where we sat beside each other. But we quickly discovered that we understood each other’s humor and timing, and we’re very good at passing the ball back and forth. If you’re not careful, Liz will steal the scene. I don’t know if the audience notices, but we play a game where we each try to get the last line in the scene. Some of those final lines, which are at the end of our scenes, might be improvised. Because they let us go.”

“I couldn’t imagine sharing this space on this show with anyone other than her. She is one of the best scene partners I’ve ever worked with, and she’s been a gift this entire seven years.”

Meanwhile, Wetterlund reflected on working with Fiehler and Meredith Garretson, who plays the Mayor’s wife Kate Hawthorne. “Garretson’s a powerhouse dramatic actor, and you can see her in all sorts of other projects, and she is unbelievable. And you act in a scene with her, and you’re like, ‘Okay, I’ll try to catch it.’ And then Levi is like that as well. They’ll surprise you, and they’re also some of the funniest people I’ve ever met. I’ve become really close friends with them.”

“That’s the other thing about the entire cast, we like each other. We rely on each other for work. And I think we all respect each other, and I don’t know how we got lucky that way.”

In addition to discussing their experience working with other series regulars, the cast also reviewed their work with the show’s incredible guest stars, including Linda Hamilton, who portrays General Eleanor McCallister, and Edi Patterson, who played Heather, a member of the Blue Avian species.

One of the more notable memories shared was Tudyk’s memory of working with Patterson in the Season 4 scene where their characters break up.

“So we had this kissing scene,” Tudyk’s story began. “We were having dinner, and Harry made chicken, which was rude. So there were problems, and she had to eat birdseed because she couldn’t eat the meal. And in the script, she’s spitting out the shells like birds do. Well, for Edi, she’s picking up a handful of sunflowers and plopping them out, squishing them around a little bit, and then just going—in your face. We were like picking birdseed off, and when the kiss came, a line said, ‘The kiss. It’s awkward.’ So, I said, ‘I would love it if you, at one point, take a bunch of sunflowers, chew them up, and regurgitate them. And she said, ‘I got you.’ But this thing didn’t work; the problem was that she would spit a couple, and then we started laughing.”

“I’m so happy to play at that level of insanity,” Tudyk concluded.

The cut scene was so humorous that the crew asked Wetterlund and Tomko to leave the set so that they could complete filming without their live laugh track screwing up the scene. “I’m pretty sure we had to ask you to leave so we could get actual footage,” said Tudyk and Sheridan.

The show consists of little love stories

Photo Credit: David Yeh/USA Network/SYFY

Throughout Resident Alien‘s four-season run, the show never dared to go that easy route. Its science fiction is rooted in tiny love stories amongst all the characters, some romantic and others platonic, but each a moving, unique love story—the friendship between Asta and Harry, Asta and D’arcy, and Liv and Mike, and the marriage of Ben and Kate. As Holbrook said during the panel, “We’re watching these love stories, and where we are now is not only waiting for mankind to survive, but for these couples to thrive and these relationships to be healthy and get back on track.”

Some of these stories have occurred off-camera, like the story of the strong bond between Sheriff Mike and his late partner. “I always felt it was important to give [the character] a moment when we understood who he was,” Sheridan said. “So, Sheriff Mike’s big moment was when he opened up about his partner, whom he had lost. It was a beautiful scene, and the first time we could see Sheriff Mike’s trauma.”

He continued, “What an unbelievable, dramatic actor Corey is. We’ve seen it so many times before. In the 10th episode of the first season, when Asta goes over to Harry’s, she finds out that he killed someone and says, ‘I’m not your friend.’ The look on Alan’s face is heartbreaking because he thought she was his friend. He’s like a child who lost a friend.”

Wetterlund echoed a similar sentiment about why she felt there’s so much emotional resonance with these larger-than-life characters.

“We are in a fantastic world. An alien has crash-landed, and I don’t think it’s normal, but maybe it is. So the circumstances are really out of this world,” she told SDCC attendees. “However, Chris wrote these characters who are from a small town, grew up knowing each other, and have these things that they like about each other or don’t, I think it’s so relatable to an audience, to people watching, because we are always rooting for good to win over evil in every way, even for us to win over our demons. And this makes it much more relatable. So then, when Harry comes along and stirs things up, it is a great balance with the comedy.”

Wetterlund continued, explaining how the cast’s on-screen relationships turned into real-life relationships, saying, “I got to meet Sara when I met Asta, so our relationship began as a professional relationship. It was a little more complicated with people like Alan, but Alan was so in it from the beginning. He commanded Harry, you know? So, it was hard with people I knew, like Michael Cassidy, who plays Dr. Ethan Stone. It’s tough to play a dating scene with him because he’s like a brother to me, and that was a little weird. And Gary Farmer is somebody I’ve been a fan of for a long time, and that was, yeah, it made me a little nervous because he’s a legend.”

Reynolds then interjected, “If you’re doing this correctly, you’re not really acting. You’re saying words on the page, but the emotion you’re tapping into is, at least for me, 100% real. The scene with Liv on the bench where Mike talks about how he lost his partner, Chris and I spoke about that ahead of time and drew on a connection to personal experiences I had had in my life. So, most actors who really see this as a craft, like an athlete, will leave it on the floor… The only thing that’s different is the cameras are there to tap you.”

On the show’s cancellation…

Photo Credit: David Yeh/USA Network/SYFY

Sheridan noted that after Season 3, he really fought hard for a Season 4. However, he didn’t think he could win another battle with the network for a renewal.

He told the Resident Alien panel attendees, “I didn’t think I’d win that battle again, and the way the industry is these days. Going into Season 4, especially with some of the budget cuts, I didn’t believe there would be Season 5. I didn’t wan to play that game again of are we gonna get picked up or not again, and look, anything can happen but I knew the smart thing was to plan on it being over after Season 4 and to finish telling this story so that when we walked away, we were proud of what we’ve done and that the story was told so the fans can feel satisfied. So I, with the writers, crafted a season that wraps up storylines and gives the audience a very satisfying conclusion to the four seasons we’ve been watching.”

“When we started shooting last year, I told the cast I believed this was the final season, so we should appreciate every moment. As we were shooting, there was an awareness that this was probably it, and I know I approached it differently and appreciated things differently. We spent the year kind of saying goodbye, not only to each other, but also to the work we did in the sets that we shot on for so many hours.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of it,” he added. “It’s hard to come up with a season finale, and incredibly hard to come up with a satisfying series finale, so I’m so proud of where we ended up this season. I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Here, Wetterlund added, “I just want to say something about the state of the industry. We know that you guys deserve more Resident Alien. You guys deserve more than you’re getting out of a lot of shows and a lot of movies. But the industry is in a state of disarray. I’ll say, it’s been disrupted, and thank you, tech for that. But, in a perfect world where TV was normal, we would have way more Resident Alien. The only reason that that’s not true is not because anybody behind the show doesn’t want it to be true, it’s because of how the industry works now, and the machines. So, I want to acknowledge that you do deserve more of everything that you love, and we do this for you.”

Lastly, according to the panel, the series finale hints at a potential movie or two—”The Vanderverse,” as Tudyk joked. “In this current business climate, we feel that we need to be cancelled, so we can become an IP and be revived.”

The cast also offered some advice for fans invested in keeping Resident Alien alive. “Reach out to the person who owns the company that owns the company that owns the person that owns the company,” Wetterlund joked, with a hint of seriousness. “#ResidentAlienVPredator.”

RIP… and then we wept!

Photo Credit: Ollie Kaplan

At the end of the panel, Holbrook asked all the panelists to go in front of the table and take their final bow. It was an emotional moment for the cast, several of whom shed some tears, and the fans, who have been blown away by the show’s fourth and final season.

In this nerd’s opinion, Resident Alien will go down in the history books as one of many great shows that ended before their time. As I wrote earlier this year, the fourth season has been so good that I knew the series would end. And unfortunately, I was right. RIP.

Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from SDCC ’25.