Resident Alien showrunner Chris Sheridan recently spoke at WonderCon 2024 about his season 4 plans, and it sounds as though he has aspirations for where Harry Vanderspeigle’s story will go. Resident Alien season 4 hasn’t yet been confirmed, but Sheridan’s vivid idea of what he wants to do with another run of episodes is very exciting. It’s clear from Resident Alien season 3’s ending that there’s plenty more story to tell, but it remains to be seen whether the Syfy show will return for another season. However, if Sheridan gets his way, it’s obvious he’s ready to go.
Sheridan has been the Resident Alien showrunner since it began back in 2021. While the latest season was much shorter than its predecessors, it had a much faster pace and opened up the show’s universe to a much greater degree. From Sheridan’s WonderCon comments, it sounds as though he is in no rush to slow down the expansion of Resident Alien‘s canon, and is also willing to make huge changes to the show’s proven formula.
The majority of Resident Alien so far has been set in the fictional town of Patience, Colorado. The nature of the tight-knit community means almost every main character has been fleshed out to an impressive degree. To freshen up the show, Sheridan seems to want to move at least part of the saga elsewhere. Speaking at WonderCon (via The Direct), the Resident Alien showrunner discussed Ben and Kate’s recent abductions in season 3:
Sheridan makes a good point, as his underlying message seems to be that what’s been going on in Patience is an incredibly small cross-section of abductions happening all around the world. The Resident Alien showrunner went on to say that he wanted to reinforce the fact that the characters are, “Kind of not safe anywhere,” and also that he wants to, “Expand the Alien Universe a little bit and ground it as much as possible.” Sheridan can achieve all of these goals by moving members of the Resident Alien cast to other parts of the country or even the planet.
There’s no doubt that Patience has been vital in the first three seasons of Resident Alien, but Alan Tudyk’s sci-fi comedy-drama has already experimented with moving events to other areas of the country. The best examples of this are in Resident Alien season 2, with episode 6, “Alien in New York,” and episode 7, “Escape From New York,” taking place on the East Coast of the USA. Shifting the focus to New York gave Resident Alien a fresh feeling that almost made it feel like a new show.
New York is just the tip of the figurative iceberg when it comes to where Resident Alien can branch out next. For instance, Los Angeles and Atlanta are other very common locations for television production. However, an international affair would be even more exciting, even if the scenes themselves aren’t filmed abroad. The show has already proven it can pull this trickery off, as even though Resident Alien is set in the USA, it is actually shot in Canada.
The Resident Alien season 3 finale was an incredibly high-stakes affair, and the reveal that the Greys’ ship is actually Earth’s moon drives home the scale of the capabilities of Harry’s enemies. To return to the day-to-day lives of the residents of Patience would be an underwhelming way to continue Resident Alien after such an explosive final episode of season 3. Of course, the show is very much driven by its cast, and while they should remain a big part of Resident Alien going forward, they don’t all need to stay in Patience to stay relevant.
In addition, Resident Alien season 4’s new villain, the Mantid, is proof that aliens can hide anywhere in the world. Heather is another example of this, as only a select few like Max Hawthorne and the Alien Tracker are capable of seeing through the disguises of extraterrestrials like Harry’s new love interest. The number of new alien species introduced in Resident Alien season 3 is another reason why focusing on one small town is a waste of potential. It’s clear that Resident Alien has a larger interstellar community, and hopefully, more about it will be revealed in the future.
Source: The Direct
