Timothy Olyphant’s upcoming sci-fi series has , which signals that the show is surpassing his past iconic horror movie role in a key way. Marking the hit franchise’s first move to the small screen, FX’s Alien: Earth sees a space shuttle go up against some of the world’s most horrifying threats, including the Xenomorph, after crash-landing on Earth before the 1979 Alien movie’s timeline. Donning white hair and eyebrows, Timothy Olyphant stars in Alien: Earth as Kirsch, a synthetic (advanced humanoid robot) who serves as the mentor of the main character Wendy.

Though the sci-fi elements give the actor a very different role to approach from his most famous shows like Justified or Westworld, Timothy Olyphant is no stranger to the horror genre. Before Alien: Earth, Olyphant starred in Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet horror series as Joel, whose wife Sheila (Drew Barrymore) turns into an undead being with a taste for human flesh. Olyphant also had horror roles in titles like Night Visions, Gremlins’ TV series, The Crazies, and Dreamcatcher, but arguably . Now, after 28 years, Alien: Earth may have it beat.

Early into his career, , a college classmate of Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott who turned out to be one of the slasher’s two Ghostface killers. The satire horror sequel gave Olyphant one of his best villain and horror roles as a film buff who sought to gain fame from his killings after blaming his actions on violence in movies. Surprisingly, however, Olyphant had yet to join another horror franchise in the live-action format after Scream 2 until landing his intriguing role in Alien: Earth.

With only a few major horror roles throughout his career, . However, Alien: Earth’s trailer suggests that’ll no longer be the case. After diving deeper into the gory horror of the franchise in the 2024 box office success Alien: Romulus, Alien: Earth follows suit with the trailer teasing intense chase scenes, bloody deaths, and nightmare-inducing new creatures in the prequel series.

Olyphant himself looks like his character will be placed in a difficult role in Alien: Earth’s claustrophobic horror story. As the synth mentor, Olyphant’s Kirsch seemingly has the greatest knowledge of Alien: Earth’s new “five different lifeforms” and will have to instruct the rest of the crew on how to “lock them down” to avoid a larger catastrophe. Whereas Olyphant’s misguided satirical Scream 2 character was the one inflicting the horrors on others, .

It feels more fitting that Timothy Olyphant’s big foray back into franchise horror properties is with Alien, as his Scream 2 role had a notable reference to the film series back in Wes Craven’s 1997 satire. In their film course's meta conversation about movie sequels, . With the students also referencing Ripley's iconic line, “Get away from her, you b***!,” it’s fascinating that his horror franchise career is coming full circle with his upcoming Alien: Earth role.

Additionally, Olyphant’s Scream franchise character being involved with that Ripley reference seems more ironic now, as Alien: Earth’s . The “get away from her” line was already recently referenced by Andy in Romulus, so Olyphant’s Kirsch is unlikely to repeat the iconic phrase so soon, but we may still see that familiar dynamic resurface in the prequel series. Unlike his Scream 2 character’s brutal demise, Olyphant’s synth will hopefully survive the inevitable space creature massacre.