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Resident Alien: Alan Tudyk hilariously tries to fit in and solve a murder in new trailer for SYFY series

By Josh Weiss
Resident Alien SYFY

Thanks to Amblin Entertainment, another refugee from outer space will find himself stuck on Earth in SYFY's Resident Alien — and we're not talking E.T. The upcoming adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book series of the same name, set to arrive in January, just dropped a new trailer, and it's basically Alan Tudyk mining comedic gold for two straight minutes.

Tudyk (Firefly, Rogue One) plays an extra-terrestrial who crash-lands on our planet and assumes the identity of Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle. He tries to keep a low profile until his medical expertise is needed in a local murder investigation. All too soon, it becomes quite clear that the alien masquerading as Harry knows absolutely nothing about human behavior. For example, most of his knowledge of criminal proceedings come from re-runs of Law & Order. And since Spielberg's production company is involved, there's a fun little twist on the E.T. format: A young boy is aware that Harry is an alien, but no one believes him.

Watch the trailer below:

Not all is fun and games, though. The government highly suspects that a visitor from beyond the stars is living in Colorado and dispatches the ruthless General McCallister (played by none other than The Terminator's OG hero, Linda Hamilton) to smoke it out. Throughout his adventures on this little blue marble we call home, Harry will decide if humanity is worth saving.

Sara Tomko ("Asta Twelvetrees"), Corey Reynolds ("Sheriff Mike Thompson"), Alice Wetterlund ("D'Arcy Bloom"), and Levi Fiehler ("Mayor Ben Hawthorne") co-star.

The series is showrun and executive-produced by Family Guy alum Chris Sheridan. Other EPs include Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, and Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV. David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) executive-produced and directed the pilot.

Resident Alien key art

"In TV, the audience has a connection to the actor playing the role," Sheridan said at New York Comic Con 2019, where the very first episode enjoyed its world premiere. "The core of Harry is very similar to Harry in the comic. I love the humor in the comic and try to preserve all that ... I felt like there's a lot of optimism in the comics. I wanted to capture that [too]. There's a lot of great stuff on TV, but a lot of dark stuff [as well]. I didn't want it to be one of those."

Resident Alien premieres on SYFY on Wednesday, Jan. 27.