FX's "Alien" Series Suspends Production Due to SAG-AFTRA Strike

"Shadow and Bone" star Kit Young is part of the Season 1 cast of FX’s series "Alien". Additionally, filming in Thailand has been suspended due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, and the cast was sent home Friday. 

According to sources, the break was planned as the series' production schedule was adjusted to account for the SAG-AFTRA work stoppage. Crew members are still working, and sets are still being prepared for when shooting resumes after the end of the strike, sources said.

Young was a late addition who joined Alien after the bulk of the main cast, led by Sydney Chandler, was set, including Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, a CEO, as well as Essie Davis as Dame Silvia and Adarsh Gourav as Slightly. Young plays a character named Tootles in Noah Hawley’s prequel to the Alien franchise.

Filming on Alien, an Equity production, started July 19 at The Studio Park in Bangkok without American Chandler, who is a SAG-AFTRA member, as the American union went on strike July 14. 

Production continued for more than a month with the rest of the cast who are Equity members as performers affiliated with the British trade union have been told that they risk being sued for breach of contract if they walk off set in solidarity with their American colleagues.

Hawley created the series, whose shoot has not been affected by the WGA strike as all scripts were completed before it was called in May.

The Alien series, executive produced by Ridley Scott, is reportedly set in a period before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and is the first story in the franchise that takes place on Earth.

British actor Young plays Jesper Fahey, a member of the Crows, in Shadow and Bone. He has signed a one-year deal for Alien would not impact his commitment to the Netflix fantasy series, which is awaiting word on a Season 3 renewal. Young also starred in the Netflix movie The School For Good and Evil.