Entertainment - Media News Watch originally published at Entertainment - Media News Watch
The setting, the lead, whether or not Ripley and Weyland-Yutani are on the show… here’s everything we know about the Alien TV series
Earlier this year, director Fede Alvarez went into production on a new Alien film that was originally intended to be released through the Hulu streaming service, but was recently given an August 16, 2024 theatrical release date. (Here’s what we know about the movie.) And that’s not the only new Alien project we have to look forward to. Fargo TV series creator Noah Hawley has been developing an Alien TV series for “FX on Hulu” for the last couple years, and below you’ll find Everything We Know About the Alien TV Series!
THE SETTING
One of the first things we heard about the Alien TV series – and one of the most surprising things about it – is that it will actually be set on Earth, a couple decades before the events of the first movie. FX chairman John Landgraf has said the show will take place “right near the end of this century”, and a late-2090s setting would place this between the prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Hawley chose to set the show in Earth because “the alien stories are always stuck… trapped in a prison or trapped in a ship.” I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”
NO RIPLEY
Alien franchise heroine Ellen Ripley, who was played by Sigourney Weaver in the first four movies, will not be a part of the show – and not just because Ripley would be a small child in the 2090s. Hawley has never considered including Ripley because he believes her story is complete. “She’s one of the great characters of all time, and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don’t want to mess with it.”
WEYLAND-YUTANI
The Weyland-Yutani corporation has been a villain lurking in the background throughout the franchise (occasionally emerging more into the foreground in some installments), and Landgraf has confirmed that there will be references to Weyland-Yutani in the Alien TV series. Hawley’s show will, for the most part, “take place on the territory of another corporation.” Hawley told Esquire that his series will feature competing companies. “In the movies we have Weyland-Yutani Corporation which is clearly developing artificial intelligence. But what if other companies are trying to look immortality in a completely different way with cyborg improvements or transhuman downloadings? Which technology will win? It’s a classic question in science fiction: Does humanity deserve to survive. Sigourney said in the second movie: “I don’t even know which species is worst.” At least they don’t f*ck each other over for a percentage.’ Even if the show was 60% of the best horror action on the planet, there’s still 40% where we have to ask, ‘What are we talking about beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting.”
SCRIPTS ARE DONE
Neither Landgraf or Hawley have ever confirmed how many episodes the first season of Alien will have, but back in August of 2022 Landgraf did tell Deadline that Hawley had already delivered all of the scripts for the show. The writers’ strike isn’t a problem for this show. The actors strike, on the other hand, may be an issue…
THE LEAD
With the scripts in place, Hawley was said to be meeting was the show’s production designer back in January, getting ready to dive into production on Alien as soon as he finished work on the fifth season of Fargo (which will start airing sometime this year). At the start of May, it was announced that Hawley had found the show’s lead: Sydney Chandler, whose previous credits include Don’t Worry Darling and the mini-series Pistol. Of course, nothing about her character has been revealed.
Whoever the character is, Hawley is working to make sure viewers will be interested in what’s going on with her even when the xenomorphs aren’t rampaging across the screen. Hawley told Observer that “if you’re making something for television, let’s say you have 10 hours.” Even if there’s a lot going on, like two-hours of action, you still have eight hours. What is the show all about? As I did with Legion, the exercise is: Let’s take the superhero stuff out of the show and see if it’s still a great show. What is the show about? Let’s remove the alien from the show. What’s it about? What are the themes? Who are the characters? What is the human drama about the show? We then add the aliens and say, “This is awesome.” Not only is there great human drama, but there’s aliens!'”
Speaking of the aliens, the rumor is that the special effects on this show will be handled by Weta Workshop, who have worked on the Lord of the Rings franchise, the Avatar movies, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Taika Waititi’s Thor movies, several Zack Snyder productions, and much more.
FILMING WILL TAKE PLACE IN THAILAND – AND WILL BE COMPLICATED BY THE SAG STRIKE
Variety has revealed that Alien will be filming in Thailand. They have heard that this will be a “large-scale undertaking” which has reportedly booked multiple Bangkok studios as well as hired vast quantities lighting equipment. Unfortunately, the production is starting just as it appears that the U.S. actors’ union SAG will go on strike. Sydney Chandler has been the only cast member to be announced, but there have been others hired, and the cast is a mixture of SAG-AFTRA members and Equity members. Two of the main actors are SAG members. This means they won’t be reporting to set during the strike, so the production will have to work around their absence.
BLEND OF HORROR AND ACTION
Landgraf has said that Hawley’s approach to the Alien TV series is to be faithful to the ideas and styles of both Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens. He’ll be bringing his own ideas to the table, extending and reinventing the franchise – but at the same time, the aim is to make this show a blend of “the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second.”
RIDLEY SCOTT STILL CLAIMS DOMINANCE
Ridley Scott is producing the Alien TV series through his Scott Free banner – but that doesn’t mean he has any expectation that the show will be able to surpass the quality of his original film. Scott told The Independent that the show would never be as good. That’s what I’ll say.”
Are you looking forward to the Alien TV series? Leave a comment to let us know what you think.
Entertainment - Media News Watch originally published at Entertainment - Media News Watch
