Know this: Peter Dinklage feels ALIEN-ated…

Tyrion Lannister famously knew what he was best at.  “That’s what I do: I drink and I know things…” Well, one more thing we know about his alter-ego, actor Peter Dinklage, is that he is set to be joining the cast of FX‘s Alien: Earth as it heads into its second season.

Little is known about who the Game of Thrones star will play at this point, though one suspects he’ll be a character that others will likely under-estimate at their peril.

The show was created by Noah Hawley (Fargo) based, of course, on the universe originally helmed by Ridley Scott. The first season of Alien: Earth aired last year and was set around 2120, around two years before the events seen in the classic Alien movie. Hawley’s story saw the USCSS Maginot – a similar ship to the legendary Nostromo – crashing into Earth’s Prodigy City metropolis with illicit samples of alien life, including the dangerous Xenomorph that were originally intended to be smuggled in for research purposes by mega-CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin). Kavalier is already leading research into creating hybrids – artificial bodies with transferred human consciousness, including ‘Wendy’ (Sydney Chandler) and when things (inevitably) go wrong and he must get the samples to ‘safety’, it’s the strange connection between Wendy and the alien cargo that could tip the balance – but for whom?

The reaction was good-to-mixed (here’s the review we originally ran) and there was some confusion about continuity and how there could possibly be knowledge of xenomorphs (never mind having one or more on Earth) prior to the original film.  The ship and building designs were eerily recreated and reminiscent of the original film’s look and the VFX were generally strong, though the emphasis seemed to be less on the xenomorphs and more on the newer alien life-forms and the human duplicity at work. Over-all, it seemed to have the vibe of an amalgamation of several Ridley Scott themes (aliens, artificial life, future corporate power and corruption).

Though many of the events of the first season took place on Kavalier’s isolated island (actually filmed in Thailand), the second season will mostly shoot at London’s Pinewood Studios (where Alien, Alien 3 and Alien: Prometheus were lensed) and filming is due to start next month.