Why Mitchell From The Midnight Sky Looks So Familiar

Netflix's recent science-fiction release The Midnight Sky is worth checking out for a variety of reasons. Based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, the movie's story follows a scientist named Augustine — played by George Clooney, who also directs the film. Augustine lives in the arctic in the aftermath of a globally destructive event that killed most of the world's population and left behind extreme radiation pollution. His peaceful existence is disturbed by a young girl named Iris (Caoilinn Springall), whom he finds on the station.

At the same time, a spaceship called Æther is approaching the Earth, returning from a trip out to Jupiter to confirm whether or not one of its moons, K-23, is habitable. Unbeknownst to them, the Earth is in bad condition. Not a place they should return to. Augustine, understanding the situation, does everything in his power to connect with Æther and warn them of the state of Earth. Along with Clooney, The Midnight Sky has a very talented cast of actors, including Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, and Kyle Chandler. 

Recognize that last name? In The Midnight Sky, Chandler plays a character named Mitchell, a member of the crew on Æther who is eager to return to his wife on Earth. The actor has been working for a long time, making his mark on television with iconic roles on long-running TV series, while also juggling quite the film career at the same time. Check out some of Chandler's most memorable roles.

Clear eyes. Full heart. Can't lose.

Arguably the role that Chandler is still best known for is Coach Eric Taylor on NBC's tragically underwatched Friday Night Lights, a high school sports drama based on an earlier feature film and a memoir by H.G. Bissinger, both of the same name. The television series ran for five seasons from 2006 to 2011.

Set in the small town of Dillon, Texas, the story focuses on Chandler's Coach Taylor and his wife Tami Taylor, played to perfection by Connie Britton. Eventually, Tami gets a job as a guidance counselor at the high school where her husband coaches varsity football. They have a teenage daughter, Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden), and the show is centered around their family and their relationships with various people in the Dillon community, including the student-athletes on Coach Taylor's team.

The show kickstarted the careers of many of Hollywood's star actors, including Michael B. Jordan, Jesse Plemons, Taylor Kitsch, Minka Kelly, and Jurnee Smollett. The whole cast, but in particular Britton and Chandler, received praise for their performances and much critical acclaim. Chandler even won the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the show's final season.

Chandler moved to Netflix in 2015 for Bloodline, another series starring big names like the late Sam Shepard, Sissy Spacek, Linda Cardellini, and Ben Mendelsohn. Another family drama, Bloodline goes a little darker than Friday Night Lights, dealing with tragic family loss, grief, and the fallout from bad decisions.

The series takes place in the town of Islamorada, Florida, where the parents of the Rayburn family (Spacek and Shepard) run a seaside inn. We follow the family drama as the oldest sibling, Danny (Mendelsohn), the true black sheep of the family, returns home and decides he wants to stay, no matter what his family thinks. Chandler plays John, the second oldest son, but clearly the favorite. He is a detective at the local sheriff's office, and the one his siblings rely on to make the tough decisions — of which there are many.

Bloodline ran for three seasons, and earned critical approval for the performances of the talented cast, mainly Chandler and Mendelsohn, both of which were nominated for multiple Emmys for their roles on the show.

Aside from his other minor roles on television series, which include heavy hitters like Grey's Anatomy and Catch-22, Chandler has acted in many high-profile films over the years — most recently Godzilla: King of the Monsters, in a role he will return to for Godzilla vs. Kong. His credits also include 2018's First Man, directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling, in which Chandler played real-life astronaut Deke Slayton, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts.

He often finds himself playing characters in positions of high authority, like his role as Hamilton Jordan in Argo, another real-life figure who was the White House Chief of Staff under President Jimmy Carter. Chandler also plays a CIA Station Chief named Joseph Bradley in Zero Dark Thirty, and Agent Patrick Denham in The Wolf of Wall Street. There's an obvious trend here, but given Chandler's success, it appears that it's working out well for him.

The Midnight Sky gives Chandler another role as an astronaut, but one in a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic setting. Along with the upcoming film Godzilla vs. Kong, Chandler is also set to venture into the slipstream fantasy film Slumberland, an upcoming adaptation of the 1989 Japanese-American animated film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (via Deadline).

In other words, plenty of forthcoming Chandler to go around.