The 10 Best Invasion Characters

At first glance, the Apple TV+ series Invasion looks like it’s going to be like many other movies and TV series that focus on aliens invading the Earth. What makes this series stand out from the rest, however, is not just its high production values–though it’s clear that Apple poured a lot of money into its production–but also the diverse and fascinating cast of characters.

The men and women that emerge in this drama show a remarkable amount of depth and complexity, though only a few really stand head and shoulders above the rest.

10 Ahmed Malik

Ahmed Malik is one half of a married couple whose relationship is already struggling even before the aliens invade. Though he constantly shows that he is something of a coward and that he doesn’t love his wife (despite her obvious devotion to him and to their marriage), that’s precisely what makes him a fascinating character. Though the series doesn’t have many villains, other than the aliens, he comes very close to fulfilling that very important role, a necessity in any story.

9 Luke Malik

Ahmed and his wife Aneesha have two children, one of whom is Luke. From the beginning, it’s clear that there’s more to Luke than meets the eye. Unlike his younger sister, who seems to be like any other young girl, Luke seems to have a special, and rather unsettling, connection to the invaders, and that includes the ability to hear them when they try to communicate with the people of Earth.

As a result, he becomes an ever more important and fascinating character as the series goes on and his parents try to survive in this dangerous new world.

8 Sheriff John Bell Tyson

Sam Neil is one of his generation’s best actors, and he has many great roles to his name. In this series, he plays the character of John Bell Tyson, whose plans to retire are disrupted by the invasion. Though he only appears in the first episode of the series, he still manages to make quite an impression as a man who is determined to get to the bottom of a mysterious disappearance in his town, no matter how much risk it entails to himself, including his life itself.

7 Montgomery “Monty” Cuttermill

There are relatively few characters that are straightforward villains in this story, and that includes the character of Monty, one of a group of children who are stranded after their school bus crashes during a school trip. He’s something of a bully and a brute, but he gradually shows that there are good reasons for why he behaves the way that he does toward his fellow children, including the fact that he has come from a very abusive household in which his father is a bully. He thus joins the ranks of other on-screen creepy children.

6 Ikuro Murai

At first glance, it looks like Ikuro Murai is going to be the sort of old-fashioned person that would condemn his daughter for falling in love with another woman. However, as he repeatedly shows, he actually fully supported her identity as a queer person; their estrangement stemmed from her refusal to live life openly (at least at first). What makes him truly one of the series’ best characters, however, is that he joins with Mitsuki as she attempts to figure out what happened to the crew of the shuttle that was destroyed.

5 Jamila Huston

Jamila is another of the children that’s stranded, but she repeatedly shows that she’s not going to simply give in to the darker impulses that motivate people when they are plunged into the middle of a terrifying situation. In fact, she repeatedly shows that she will remain loyal to her friend Caspar, even though everyone else sometimes shows doubt or skepticism about his leadership. More than anything else, she shows that she is a deeply empathic person with a firm moral compass.

4 Caspar Morrow

Of all of the children that are stranded after their bus crashes, Caspar seems to have the best head on his shoulders. Like many others, he has something of a tragic backstory–his father abused his mother so severely that she ended up in a wheelchair–but he also shows that he has a force of will that won’t be denied. Even though Monty is by far the more sinister and stronger personality, and the one determined to take charge, Caspar takes up the reins of leadership and proves his true mettle.

3 Aneesha Malik

From the very first episode, Aneeshsa Malik shows that she deserves to be regarded as one of the series’ best characters. She is not only fiercely protective of her children–doing everything that she can to keep them safe not only from the aliens and their destructive appetites but also from the chaos that unfolds after the infrastructure starts to fail.

What’s more, she shows that she has a formidable intellect and surgical ability that allows her to save her husband, even despite his betrayal of her.

2 Trevante Ward

Trevante Ward is like a hero from one of the best war movies, stranded in Afghanistan once the invasion starts. He is devoted to his soldiers, and he feels tremendous pain and remorse after they are either injured or killed by the invading aliens. He also shows that he is a survivor, managing to endure more than almost any of the other characters as he battles his way across the war-torn landscape of Afghanistan. Through it all, he demonstrates time and again that he has a firm moral compass that governs all of his actions.

1 Mitsuki Yamato

Mitsuki Yamato is sure to become one of the best characters in science fiction. When the series begins, she is working for the Japanese equivalent of NASA, and she sets out to unravel the mystery about who or what destroyed the shuttle that her girlfriend was on. She is unapologetic about her love for the other woman–even reprimanding her own mother for her insensitivity–and she shows that she’s willing to take on anyone who stands in the way of her trying to get to the truth about what happened.

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