''Invasion'' is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

television series created by

Simon Kinberg Simon David Kinberg (born August 2, 1973) is a British-born American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film franchise, and has also written such films as '' Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' and '' Sherlock Holmes''. He ...

and

David Weil David Weil is an American academic and economist who was the nominee to serve as administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the United States Department of Labor in the Biden administration. He previously served in this role during the Obama ...

. It premiered on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

on October 22, 2021. The series has received a mixed critical response. In December 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, which is set to premiere on August 23, 2023.

Premise

An alien invasion is seen through the different perspectives of various people on different continents across the world.

Cast

Main

Golshifteh Farahani Rahavard Farahani ( fa, رهاورد فراهانی; born 10 July 1983), known professionally as Golshifteh Farahani (), is an Iranian-French actress. She is known for her performances in ''M for Mother'' (2006), '' Body of Lies'' (2008), ''Abo ...

as Aneesha Malik *

Shamier Anderson Shamier Anderson (born May 6, 1991) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing U.S. Deputy Marshal Xavier Dolls on the television series '' Wynonna Earp'' and ''Invasion.'' Background Anderson is the older brother of actor Stephan James. He ...

as Trevante Cole *

Shioli Kutsuna is an Australian-born Japanese actress, known for her role as Ran Mori in ''Shinichi Kudo's Written Challenge!'', Minami Maho in ''Beck,'' Haru/Harumi in ''125 Years Memory,'' and Yukio in ''Deadpool 2''. She plays Mitsuki in the Apple TV+ s ...

as Mitsuki Yamato * Firas Nassar as Ahmed "Manny" Malik (season 1) * Aziz Capkurt as Kuchi * Billy Barratt as Caspar Morrow * Azhy Robertson as Luke Malik * Tara Moayedi as Sarah Malik * Daisuke Tsuji as Kaito Kawaguchi (season 1) *

Sam Neill Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...

as Sheriff Jim Bell Tyson (season 1) * India Brown as Jamila Huston (season 2; recurring: season 1) * Paddy Holland as Montgomery (Monty) Cuttermill (season 2; recurring: season 1)

Recurring

Rinko Kikuchi (born ; January 6, 1981) is a Japanese actress. She was the first Japanese actress to be nominated for an Academy Award in 50 years, for her work in ''Babel'' (2006). Kikuchi's other notable films include '' Norwegian Wood'' (2010), which s ...

as Hinata *

Togo Igawa , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor who works primarily in British films and television. In recent years, he has had roles in major films such as '' Revolver'', ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', '' The Last Samurai'', and ''A Matter of Size ...

as Ikuro Murai *

Tamara Lawrance Tamara Naomi Lawrance (born 1994)Bowie-Sell, Daisy '' WhatsOnStage''. 14 February 2017. is a British actress. She is known for her performances as Prince Harry's republican girlfriend in the 2017 BBC television film ''King Charles III'', and as ...

as Learah * Louis Toghill as Darwin Charles * Cache Vanderpuye as Alfie Ademura

Episodes

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2

Production

Development

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

gave an order for ten episodes in January 2019 with Simon Kinberg and David Weil creating, writing, and executive producing the series, with Audrey Chon also executive producing. ''

Deadline Deadline(s) or The Deadline(s) may refer to: * Time limit, a narrow field of time by which an objective must be accomplished Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Deadline (DC Comics), a fictional villain * ''Deadline'' (magazine), a British ...

'' reported that Chad Feehan was briefly brought in as a showrunner "out of necessity", but soon departed the series in September 2019. When filming was announced to resume, Jakob Verbruggen was said to be director and executive producer of the series with Amy Kaufman, Andrew Baldwin, and Elisa Ellis also executive producing; however, further reporting stated that

Amanda Marsalis Amanda Marsalis is an American film director and photographer. Career Photographic career Marsalis attended California College of Arts and Crafts where she studied with Larry Sultan and Jim Goldberg. Directing career Marsalis made her dire ...

had also directed some episodes of the series. ''Invasion'' is reported to have a $200million budget. On December 8, 2021, Apple renewed the series for a second season.

Casting

''Deadline'' revealed in August 2020 that Neill, Anderson, Farahani, Nassar, and Kutsuna were all to be part of the cast.

Filming

Filming was originally planned to commence in mid-2019 with Kinberg directing but was delayed due to his work on the feature film ''

The 355 ''The 355'' is a 2022 American action spy thriller film directed by Simon Kinberg from a screenplay by Theresa Rebeck and Kinberg, and a story by Rebeck. The film stars Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, and Lupita N ...

''. According to a report by ''Deadline'', ''Invasion'' planned to film in New York, Manchester, Morocco, and Japan. "Portions of the series had been shot in New York and Morocco, and producers were prepping for the UK shoot when the coronavirus-related industry shutdown started in mid-March." In February 2021, filming occurred in Greenwich, one of the last filming locations for the series. Filming for the first season concluded on March 15.

Release

The series premiered on October 22, 2021, with the release of its first three episodes; Season one concluded on December 10, 2021.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 47% approval rating with an average rating of 5.4/10, based on 36 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Invasion'' attempts a slow burn but inadvertently lets its tension completely fizzle out with leaden pacing that will leave viewers impatient for the alien apocalypse to finally arrive."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 51 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Daniel Fienberg, writing for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'', said that "''Invasion'' verges on 10 episodes of setup so pure and unfulfilling that a better title would be ''Evasion''". He called the series, "amusing at first, then annoying, and finally, simply confusing", but praised

's performance.

References

External links

* at

* {{Apple TV+ Alien invasions in television 2020s American science fiction television series 2021 American television series debuts Apple TV+ original programming English-language television shows Television series created by Simon Kinberg Television shows filmed in the United Kingdom Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series by Boat Rocker Media