Resident Alien season 4 has now been confirmed as the sci-fi dramedy’s final run of episodes, but the show is making sure it goes out with a bang. While disappointing, the announcement that Resident Alien season 5 isn’t happening makes perfect sense. The Resident Alien cast and crew have already struggled to achieve renewal before.

The Mantid Changing Form Again In Resident Alien Hints The Villain Could Become Anyone In Season 4’s Final 2 Episodes

The Mantid has already been physically portrayed in Resident Alien season 4 by both Alan Tudyk and his former Firefly co-star, Jewel Staite. The closing moments of “Mine Town” come with the shocking twist that a third actor has now taken on the role – Elizabeth Bowen, who typically plays Deputy Liv Baker.

While Harry can also change his form, he can’t do so as freely and easily as the Mantid. So, the nefarious insectoid is especially difficult to track for those who can’t see through an alien’s human disguise – like Max Hawthorne (Judah Prehn) and Peter Bach (Terry O’Quinn) can.

It took a while for the show to reveal that Jewel Staite’s Agent Gardner had been replaced by the Mantid, but the profile of the actress playing her made her seem like a flagship casting.

The initial reveal at the end of Resident Alien season 3 that showed the Mantid had taken Harry’s place was great, but the twist wasn’t kept secret for very long. Inversely, it took a while for the show to reveal that Jewel Staite’s Agent Gardner had been replaced by the Mantid, but the profile of the actress playing her made her seem like a flagship casting.

Now that the Mantid has transformed again, this time into Liv, it not only makes it especially difficult to know or predict who the Mantid will disguise himself as next, but it also brings into question the safety of Patience’s beloved deputy sheriff. Unless Max and/or Peter are constantly monitoring the Mantid, the bloodthirsty alien will surely kill and slip away again.

I Hope The Mantid’s Original Actor Gets An On-Screen Debut Before The Villain Makes His Exit

The Mantid debuted in the season 3 finale and was initially voiced by Clancy Brown. Perhaps most known for his voice work, including his role as Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants, Brown is also an accomplished live-action actor. However, beyond a handful of episodes where Brown has voiced the Mantid and later his inner-monologue, the actor’s Resident Alien role has been limited.

For an actor of Brown’s talent and reputation, it would be a shame if his time involved with the sci-fi project was only ever limited to the occasional voice role. Hopefully, the show’s final two episodes find a way of allowing the actor to play the Mantid on-screen. It would be very easy to do.

All that would need to happen would be for Clancy Brown to be cast as a human character, who doesn’t even need to be named or fleshed out. That way, the Mantid can run into this unnamed human, kill him, and shapeshift into him so that he has Clancy Brown’s physical appearance before Resident Alien’s inevitable showdown with the villain.