The third season of Apple TV+’s sci-fi hit Invasion has been a journey and sometimes a slog - literally. Trevante (Shamier Anderson, John Wick 4), Jamila (India Brown, Honey Bunch), Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani, Paterson) and Mitsuki (Shioli Kitsuna, Deadpool & Wolverine) traveled across the world looking for answers, only to find themselves stranded in the dead zone. Hiking through the forest, low on oxygen and options, they’re running out of time to destroy the alien hive mind.

In advance of the season’s tenth and final episode, SciFi Vision spoke with Stephen Tracey, the actor who plays Sergeant Reese. As part of Trevante’s WDC unit, Reese has survived a helicopter crash, fought alien hunter-killers, and traded bullets with Infinitas guerillas. Can he survive the mission?

Reese won’t spoil his characters fate, but he did share some insight about Reese’s attitude toward Trevante, along with plenty of details on shooting those actions sequences and working with aliens. He also spoke briefly about his experience on another fantastic science fiction show, The Expanse. Our discussion is spoiler-free, so watch the video (or read the transcript) before you catch the season finale!

The season finale of Invasion (episode 310, “The End of The Line”) is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Watch the interview and read the transcript below



SCIFI VISION:   I want to say, first of all, I'm so happy that Sergeant Reese has lived to the finale. A soldier in the dead zone, a lot of them didn't make it.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah, you know, you're probably not as happy as me because every time we got a script, a huge chunk of us were getting knocked off. So, every time we made it through, even in the last episode, when I got the script for episode nine, there's a moment when Reese gets grabbed by the Infinitas and I was like, “Oh, damn it, here we go.” But it wasn't the end, which was great. Yep, yep.

SCIFI VISION:   We did a livestream last night and I was speaking with one of my colleagues who thought when Tucker gets it, for a minute thought, oh, that's Reese.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   I know. I mean, the funny thing is too, is that the uniform really does make all of us look the same. So sometimes it's hard to distinguish who's who, even as someone who was inside of it, you go, “Wait, is that me firing that gun?”

SCIFI VISION:   I keep pausing and I keep looking for like a U.S. military uniform with the name on it, right? And the WDC doesn't do that.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah. I mean, some of our uniforms had them, but not, I guess not all of them. Also too, if people are reading our name tags, maybe the show isn't doing its job. But at the same time, I'm just so thrilled that Reese got to make it to the end.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah. We've been trying for a couple of weeks to get on your schedule and every episode, I was like, “Oh, is he going to die before I get to interview him?” That would be terrible.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Or maybe it would be like very, like ceremonious, be like a farewell, but at least we didn't have to do that.

SCIFI VISION:   No, we're here now. You're still alive going in. I won't say what happens, but going into the finale, you are still alive.

So, you had sort of the whole range of, so much went on with these soldiers who are - you know, you're there in a role to support Trevante's team, right? But I have really struggled with the attitude that some of these guys have. Trevante saved the world and, you know, some of the guys look at him as a bit of a celebrity and some of the guys like really have no use for Trevante. How did you guys pull all that together?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   I think part of the arc for Trevante this season was learning how to rediscover himself and rediscover his roots. And when this military group is very close knit, it's a special forces unit, they've trained together. They know each other very intimately and very well. And as people in our group are being killed off because of his mistakes, when he is a proper trained soldier, people could have lived when they didn't. So, I think this becomes like an emotional thing going, “You're supposed to be one of us. You're supposed to be fighting with us,” type thing.

So, throughout the arc of the season, as he learns to reassess his skills and come back and become who he becomes, the hero that he was in the last season…he starts to earn our trust and earn our companionship. But I think it's like when you're inside of it and your friends are being picked off one by one because of his mistakes, it's really easy to be like, “You should know better. You're not just a civilian. You're one of us.”

And not as many people needed to die. But in the end, he starts saving some lives and he becomes the hero that we know him to be.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah. And Reese is a little less aggressive, I think. Not as vocal, not as angry as some of his compatriots.

STEPHEN TRACEY:    No, I think the nice thing about the colors that we got to play with for Reese was just he's probably the most green in the group and is doing his best to just be there and to just survive and to act like he's not scared, but deep down, really, really feeling it. So, I think that's the nice thing is when you don't have to be the aggressor in the group. It gives it a different flavor.

SCIFI VISION:   You don't also have to get in the face of the star of the show.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yes. But I mean, there were times when we all looked the same. So, when we were shooting, there would be accidents where he [Shamier Anderson] would deliver lines to the wrong person. It would be like, “Over there!”

SCIFI VISION:   All you guys in those white camo uniforms.

You got to play sort of the range of an alien show. In the beginning of the season, you have to fight hunter-killers and are almost killed by hunter-killers. And then in the [most recent] episode, you were almost killed by humans. Can you talk a little bit about the, I mean, there are obvious differences when you're playing against a green screen, I guess, or against nothing that's going to be dropped in later. And then ultimately, the greater threat turns out to be from humans by the end of the season. Can you talk about shooting those two different kinds of scenes where you almost die?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah. Yeah. I think that's probably the theme for the whole season is “you almost die.” It's like every script. No, it's you almost die.

If we think about this from a real-world perspective and thinking about if aliens exist or not, first of all, they would be more intelligent because they'd be able to travel through space, which is something that we haven't been able to do as human beings beyond landing on the moon. But we only did that once. And who even knows if that was real - but that's a different show.

And if aliens did come, I think the thing that they would see with us is that we are a species that hurts and attacks each other. So, in a way, you would think another being coming to our planet would unite us - but it doesn't, which I think is a big reflection of kind of what's going on in the world right now. So, I think it was an important story to tell, even if that wasn't the direct focus. It is kind of a nod to that.

But in terms of the actual shooting process, because we were using real guns with blanks in them, which give off a bit of a kickback and a little bit of a fire debris - no bullets or anything, very, very safe. We had to make sure that everything was safe.

So, we weren't firing at anything at any moment, just to keep things in a clear line. But when we had our guns and we didn't have any active ammo in the chamber, there was actually someone who was running around with a hunter-killer head. So we weren't, it's not like it was a green screen and it wasn't a ball. We were looking at the real things every single time.

And the way that they shot the show, I mean, Apple TV really does put such an emphasis on the cinematography and the look and the feel of all of their projects, because I think is part of the reason why they're so successful.

There would be six cameras hidden amongst the trees. And we would have the group of the Infinitas in the woods jumping out - boom, boom, boom! And we were on the other side and being like, OK, this actually kind of feels like it's happening, because you don't really notice where the cameras are unless you're getting like a super big close up. But for the most part, in an action sequence, everything's kind of wider so that you can see what's going on. So, it actually, to a very small degree, felt like it was really happening, which I think added to the performances of the people.

SCIFI VISION:   I had the chance in season two, I spoke with Alik Sakharov, who has directed many episodes of Invasion. He directed episode nine and I'm not sure, but probably at least, usually like four or five episodes a season. As an actor working in television, I think you're accustomed to having maybe a different director every episode. What's it been like to have a show that really only uses like two or three directors, I think?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Well, yeah, each block, each block that we shot, it was one director who took care of both of those episodes. And that block usually lasted for just over a month. So, it was a good chunk of time with someone, whereas a lot of other TV shows you'd be shooting for a week and a half and get a new person every single moment.

And everybody works differently. But the showrunners do such a great job of creating a throughline with the style and the tone that feels so disjointed. There'll be nuances where you can tell a director, their background was more technical. It's the visual setup of things. It's making sure that things are running smoothly or they look good. And then performance is second, whereas other directors are performances first, and then the technical stuff kind of comes out afterwards.

But they're so strategic with who they choose for which episodes because they know whose skill set will flourish in what parts of the story are there. So, it was really, it felt pretty seamless because the moments where it needed to be intrigue or suspense, heartbreak, it was the right directors. And then, Alik's episodes were very exciting. And in a lot of big moments that happened - I’ll try not to give anything away, but I feel like they do a good job of figuring out whose skill set is is best where.

But there's been a lot of other projects where it can feel really, really disjointed. And I'm sure as audience members who are listening to this, or even yourself, where you're watching a TV show and then another episode comes on, and it feels like a completely different show. And I think that's the key with TV directing, being able to create your own style and your own work, but at the same time making sure that it's appropriate for the existing world that has already been built.

SCIFI VISION:   I feel like that doesn't really happen so much on this show. You also have a creator and a showrunner in Simon Kinberg, who's so intimately involved with every season.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah. And I think that having someone who's steering the ship and making sure that the intention and the art and the real focal point for each of the episodes in the season as a whole stays tried and true, because it's really easy to go off track, because every person has a different style, a different way of approaching things. So, they did, I think, a very good job of making sure that everything felt streamlined.

SCIFI VISION:   So, our channel is called SciFi Vision. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that you have been in one of our other favorite shows, one of the maybe greatest shows of all time, The Expanse, where you played a pirate, essentially, right?

STEPHEN TRACEY:    A polyamorous pirate.

SCIFI VISION:   Yes, yes, a polyamorous pirate.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Liberation Station.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah. But less gunplay, although a lot of death and destruction also for that group by the end.

So, these are two of our favorite science fiction programs. Are you a sci-fi guy? Is this a coincidence that you landed in two such great pieces of entertainment?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   I think it's fully a coincidence. I do enjoy sci-fi myself. It wasn't like, these are the ones I'm going to get on. I just let the booking gods place me as they shall. But the thing that I do personally love about sci-fi is it's always ahead of any other genre in terms of what you're able to talk about, where the future is going, and then also how art is going to be executed in the future.

Like, say for The Expanse. The Expanse season one, I mean, it came out, I think, you might even know better than me, like 2015 or 2014 or something like that.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, something like that. I'm not sure.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   And at the time, it was one of the few shows that had, like, an incredibly diverse cast. And the intention wasn't to showcase diversity. It just was like, this is what the future looks like. And since then, I feel like almost every show kind of follows the formula of what that is.

And because it's set in the future, because it's not set in our concrete world, but pulls from it, you're able to talk about things that are a little bit larger than life. Like, I was in season five, our whole thing was we were the Belters, born and bred in outer space, didn't develop the ability to withstand gravity. So, we can't go back to Earth. Our ancestors are from Earth, but we physically can't go to Earth. So, we are dependent on its resources, but we cannot access them.

And our group gets divided based off of, do we concede to the demands of the people? Or do we rise up against it to fight this injustice? And so much of that is happening right now. And also so much of that was happening then. It came out in 2021, and that was the year that George Floyd was murdered. And there was a line that I think [Wilex Ly], who played Serge, who gets pushed out the airlock, said before his character dies,”Are we going to live with Earth's boot on our neck?” And that line is so charged. And it wasn't even the intention to be talking about that, because we shot that a year before any of those events were happening. But it was just because the writers were so on the pulse of where the world was heading, that it just so happened to serendipitously coincide.

And I think that is really the power that sci-fi has. And I think people can poo-poo on it, because it's in the future, and it's sleek outfits and otherworldly things, but it really has the ability to paint where we're going and actually talk about things that are going on currently, because it's not so in-your-face, as if someone was telling a story that was happening now. It's kind of harder for audiences to digest.

SCIFI VISION:   And bringing it back to Invasion, this is sort of an alternate present where Invasion is set, it's not as overtly political but, for example, we see a group of people who are driven, they're opposing the government based on like, I don't know if I would call that religious fervor or a cult of personality around Verna. But they're inspired by ideology.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a group of people rising up who are civilians, essentially, and others are trained military. And it's like, you have those cult belief figures versus government figures. And these are things that are happening now.

Even if that's not the intention of the show, it's still something that is going on that could be a direct parallel, but it's easier to digest because we're not looking at it from that lens, we're looking at it from entertainment.

SCIFI VISION:   So, the season finale is going to air on Friday, the 24th of October, two days from our conversation. And I don't want to talk too much about it. We know that there are some things that need to be resolved. Hoping to get a resolution from whatever's up with Verna. Will Nikhil be able to plant the bomb? These questions are out there.

You haven't seen it, but you read it, and you acted it. Three words. What three words would you use to describe what's waiting for us?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Oh, three words to describe what's waiting for us, based on what I experienced. I'm trying to think of things that won't give anything away. I guess it would be, um, maybe like revenge, belief, and the future.

SCIFI VISION:   No, those are great. Those are great! I just watched it, rewatched it again last night, I think those are three great adjectives to describe it.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   What would you say?

SCIFI VISION:   Revenge is a good. I was going to say maybe grief. You know, [episode nine] ends with Aneesha's scream, like “Vernaaaaa!” Which was awesome.

And belief, sure. We had seen in episode nine that Mitsuki's beliefs are changing. I don't know what that's about at all, because every time I think maybe these aliens aren't so bad, I'm like, oh, right, the drones killed several million people. So, they're not here for good.

And, uh, hashtag Reese lives? I hope.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah. I mean, you know, I don't.

SCIFI VISION:   Verna's still out there with a gun, so maybe the shooting's not over, right? Or Verna's guys are out there.

So, of course there's no word on renewal yet. It's too soon, the finale hasn't even dropped yet. We do know that Apple TV made us wait two years in between seasons two and three, I suspect largely because special effects take a long time. So it would be too early, even if you do live it would be too early for you to know what would happen to Reese should he live.

Where I'm going with this is, do you have other things that you're going to be working on that you can share with us yet? Or is it all too tight-lipped?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   All the other things that I'm working on are tight-lipped right now, but I think a big thing that you can do for actors that you like or creators that you like is go to their IMDB and obviously check out their previous work. But mainly, funny enough, when people are being pitched for projects, sometimes your IMDB meter’s used as a barometer for if you should be a part of the project or not. So, every time you get looked at your number goes up or down, because you want to be number one…So that's a nice way, if you see somebody in a show whose performance you really like, just quickly IMDBing them. Sometimes it helps them in the future.

SCIFI VISION:   Okay. So, everyone who's watching, the first thing you do is like and subscribe to this channel, SciFi Vision, and the second thing you do is go to Stephen's IMDB.

And do you have social media that we can hit up and follow?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah, I've got Instagram and all those things. So, just put my name, Stephen Tracey, and you should be able to find it.

SCIFI VISION:   Great. Well, we are so grateful that you're able to take time to be with us.

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Thank you for having me.

SCIFI VISION:   Oh, of course. We love talking to actors, especially from some of our favorite shows like this.

So, I hope that you are planning a nice watch party. Are you going to sit down at some point on Friday and watch that finale? Find out if you live?

STEPHEN TRACEY:   Yeah. Yeah. If not Friday, sometime this weekend, but absolutely. Yep.

SCIFI VISION:   All right. Well, everyone remember that the season three finale of Invasion airs this Friday, October 24th. It drops on Apple TV. Watch that episode, catch the whole season if you haven't already.