Resident Alien Star Alan Tudyk’s “Secret” Superman Role Revealed: All About Superman Robot #4
Resident Alien Star Alan Tudyk's "Secret" Superman Role Revealed: All About Superman Robot #4
Resident Alien Star Alan Tudyk’s “Secret” Superman Role Revealed: All About Superman Robot #4
From playing an alien on TV to assisting one on the big screen, Alan Tudyk can do it all.
Alan Tudyk may be TV’s Resident Alien, but he’s also going to be appearing alongside arguably the most famous alien in pop culture. In the upcoming Superman film, Tudyk will be voicing Superman Robot #4, one of the iconic hero’s robot servants who assist him at his Fortress of Solitude.
James Gunn, director of the upcoming film that’s rebooting DC’s superhero cinematic universe, shared details about Superman Robot #4 and Tudyk on Instagram in early June.
“This is Superman Robot No. 4,” Gunn said in the video, addressing the real robotic prop the crew created to depict the character. “That’s his legal name.”
Tudyk was “blown away” by how intricate the animatronic was, and one of the designers boasted that “there’s so many moves in this guy.”
Tudyk is seen wearing a motion-capture suit in the video, suggesting that he’s also doing some physical acting for scenes where Superman Robot #4 will be CGI.
What are Superman Robots?
In the upcoming Superman movie, Superman Robot #4 is one of a number of automatons that assist the Man of Steel when he’s in his Arctic hideout.
A trailer for the film shows the robots assisting an injured Superman by giving him a healthy dose of the rays from Earth’s yellow sun, which give him his powers. Another trailer shows the bots fighting an intruder.
The robots are likely inspired by All-Star Superman, a beloved comic book that is often considered a definitive take on the iconic superhero. In that comic — a celebration of how fun and hopeful Superman could be, which was written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely — Superman’s robots were loyal servants. Tudyk’s Superman Robot # 4 appears to be loyal, too.
“His voice is my voice with better annunciation,” Tudyk jokes in the Instagram video of his acting technique for the character.
Alan Tudyk’s Voice Acting Work
Superman Robot #4 isn’t Tudyk’s first voice acting gig — it’s not even the first time he’s voiced a robot, as he provided the voice for K-2SO in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and more recently reprised the role in the TV series Andor. He has also voiced Superman himself, playing the hero in the animated film Justice League: War. Just a few of his other voice acting roles include parts in Big Hero Six, Moana, the live-action Aladdin, and The Electric State.
Tudyk’s role in Superman compliments his performance in Resident Alien, an ongoing sci-fi series that airs on USA Network and SYFY, quite well. In the show, which is currently in the midst of its fourth season, Tudyk plays Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, an alien who crashes in the small town of Patience, Colorado, and assumes the identity of a human doctor. Snarky and prone to dramatics, Harry eventually learns to call Earth his new home. And while Superman Robot #4 probably isn’t as big an oddball as Harry, there’s still overlap in the wry humor, and in the way that both Resident Alien and the upcoming movie blend comedy, heart, and classic sci-fi.
Superman hits theaters on July 11, but you can catch Alan Tudyk on Resident Alien every week by tuning in for new episodes of the fourth season when they air on USA Network on Friday nights at 11 p.m. Episodes will be simulcast on SYFY, and will be available to stream on Peacock the following week.
