The newest installment in the Alien franchise, FX’s Alien: Earth series, will finally
deliver on Joss Whedon’s almost three-decade-old rule-breaking plans for Alien:
Resurrection. Following the successful 2024 release of dark standalone prequel
Alien: Romulus, Alien: Earth will act as yet another prequel to Ridley Scott’s original
1979 sci-fi spectacle, taking place in 2120, only two years before the voyage of the
USCSS Nostromo in Alien. Developed by Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley,
Alien: Earth will finally make one of the franchise’s most haunting concepts a reality.

Alien: Earth‘s official synopsis reveals a dark and sinister story for the series – the
first live-action TV show in the Alien franchise. The crash of the USCSS Maginot on
Earth, and the release of its dangerous Xenomorph cargo, will pose a huge problem
for the five powerful corporations ruling Earth, Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch,
Dynamic, and Threshold. Wendy (Sydney Chandler), one of the first Hybrids –
humanoid robots brought to life with human consciousness, and a “ragtag group of
soldiers” will take on the new alien threat, with a setting seldom seen in the Alien
franchise’s history.

Setting the newest Alien franchise instalment on Earth rather than on some far-away
planet, moon, vessel, or space station, will make the Xenomorph threat even more
terrifying and real. With a political undercurrent and commentary on artificial
intelligence, Alien: Earth will be an important milestone in the franchise, so it’s great
that the series is putting a spin on this old idea that will dial up the horror. Bringing
the alien to Earth can also pay homage to Alien: Resurrection‘s alternate endings.

RELATED: All 9 Alien Films Ranked

What Was Joss Whedon’s Alternate Plan For Alien: Resurrection’s Ending?

1997’s Alien: Resurrection brought Sigourney Weaver back despite Ellen Ripley’s
death in Alien 3. In the years since Resurrection‘s release, screenwriter Joss
Whedon has vehemently voiced his unhappiness with the movie. “They said the
lines… mostly,” Whedon noted during a 2005 interview with Bullz Eye, “but they said
them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored
it wrong. They did everything wrong that they possibly could do.” Whedon also
commented on the fact that “they changed the ending,” referring to his alternate
plans to bring the Newborn alien to Earth.

In the theatrical ending of Alien: Resurrection, the clone of Ellen Ripley defeated the
alien-human hybrid, the Newborn, while the Auriga crashes to Earth, leaving Ripley 8
and the synthetic Call (Winona Ryder) to look down on Earth and ponder their next
steps. Whedon wanted something different for his Alien installment, however, as he
suggested several alternate endings that brought the battle between Ripley 8, Call,
and the Newborn to Earth. These were all rejected in lieu of director Jean-Pierre
Jeunet’s space-based fight sequence, but Alien: Earth will finally make Whedon’s
Earth-based alien dreams come to fruition.

Test footage released in 2015 by effects company Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.
confirmed Whedon’s original plan for Resurrection wouldn’t have seen the Newborn
sucked through a pinhole in the Auriga’s window, but for commanding officer Perez
(Dan Hedaya) to meet this fate instead. Had the Newborn not died in this manner, Whedon planned several endings, the most prominent featuring a fight between
Ripley 8, Call, and the Newborn in a forest, with the alien’s acidic blood causing a
forest fire. Other proposed settings included a junkyard, a desert, and even a
maternity ward, but none of these were meant to be.

You Might Have Forgotten The Alien Franchise Has Already Brought Xenomorphs To Earth

Alien: Earth will surely pay homage to Joss Whedon’s original ending plans for Alien:
Resurrection, with the series’ title suggesting the entire battle against the Xenomorph
will take place on terra firma. It might be easily forgotten, however, that 2004’s Alien
vs. Predator crossover movie revealed Xenomorphs had, in fact, been loose on
Earth for over a century. These aliens were created through human sacrifice at the
hands of the worshipped Predators at sites like the Antarctica pyramid, and this story
continued in the crossover’s reviled sequel.

2007’s Alien vs. Predator: Requiem set a Xenomorph-Predator hybrid, the Predalien,
loose on Gunnison, Colorado. A veteran Predator and the townspeople fight to take
down the Predalien in a divisive and lackluster story, but the new Alien: Earth series
has the perfect opportunity to redeem the Alien franchise’s Earth-based adventures.
There’s a risk Alien: Earth‘s grounded setting will bog-down the narrative, but with a
political backbone and a talented new cast, the series will be one of the most
important installments in the Alien franchise yet.

RELATED: You’ll Never Believe How Many Times Xenomorphs Have Crossed Over In Comics (So We Made A List)

Alien: Earth kicks off with a two-episode premiere on August 12, 2025, and new
episodes will release every Tuesday on FX, Hulu, and Disney+ for international
audiences.

How excited are you about Alien: Earth finally bringing the Xenomorphs to Earth? Let
us know in the comments!

The post Alien’s New TV Show Can Finally Deliver On Joss Whedon’s Rule-Breaking Movie Plans appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Alien: Earth is set for a landing on FX and Hulu in August, and with it, we’ll see a new heroine attempt to survive and stop the spread of the xenomorphs before the entire planet is overrun. But don’t expect this story to just be a copy of Ellen Ripley’s experience on the Nostromo. For one, the story brings the action to Earth, so there’s little chance any of the characters to just launch the alien into space and win the day. Also, don’t expect Sydney Chandler’s hybrid Wendy to act like your typical heroine. This is a new type of robotic hybrid in a world where corporations control the planet, and they might be worse than the xenomorphs by the time the show premieres.

Chandler and creator Noah Hawley spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the series, Chandler’s hybrid character, and where the actress sees her place among the franchise’s other heroes. These hybrids are owned by the Prodigy corporation, a rival to Weyland-Yutani and one of five corporations holding power over the entire globe.

“Let’s just say the climate predictions are coming true. It’s a hotter, wetter planet,” Hawley tells the outlet. “If we just extrapolate where we are now, it’s driven much more by corporations than democracies. It’s very much wrapped up in a competition for technological superiority. The nature of power is, ‘In the end, there can be only one.’ So we’re in the middle of a battle on that level for who has the power in the human race.”

The hybrids play a part in this struggle, with Wendy arriving with other hybrids to investigate the site of a crashed Weyland-Yutani ship in Prodigy City. These hybrids stand different than other types of robots and cyborgs we’ve seen in the franchise before Alien: Earth. The hybrids are exclusive property of the Prodigy corporation as exclusive IP, painting a picture where we’ve moved on from a new phone each year to having companies push out new versions of robots like the latest iPhone. A big difference with the hybrids, though, is that they have a child’s brain in their adult robot body.

[RELATED – From “A” to “Xenomorph,” All 9 Alien Films Ranked]

“We started working with the mechanics of how these kids would move physically, and Noah took us more into the mindset space,” Chandler tells EW. “What is the essence of a kid or a young adult? How do their minds work differently than the adult mind? Kids are so present and they haven’t been battered by the world as much as an adult. So they trust their gut and they don’t second guess.”

Hawley cites Ripley’s quote from Aliens where she says she doesn’t know which species is worse, humans or the xenomorphs, as important to his story.

“I don’t know which species is worse. You don’t see them f—ing each other over for a goddamn percentage,” Weaver says in the film, getting some sparks flying in Hawley’s neurons.

“This idea of the horrible things that we do to each other,” the creator adds. “Sydney plays a somewhat innocent character who finds herself trying to navigate two kinds of monsters. One is human and the other is from outer space. We do expand on that idea that it’s going to be up to the audience which species is worse.”

For Chandler, she’s just hopeful that fans can see how her character is fresh for the series while not affecting the quality of the story.

“I don’t even want to try to compare my character with Ripley,” Chandler said. “That’s just impossible to do. But I hope people like Wendy as much as I love her … She’s my favorite character that I’ve ever been able to play.”

Alien: Earth premieres on FX and Hulu on Tuesday, August 12, with two episodes leading the premiere and a new episode following every week. Will you be tuning in? Let us know in the comments.

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FX’s upcoming TV series Alien: Earth has a golden chance to breathe new life into the franchise in a manner recent movies weren’t able to. Fargo’s Noah Hawley creates the first-ever Alien show, which takes place two years before the events of Ridley Scott’s original 1979 Alien film and around 20 years after the other Alien prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Hence its title, Alien: Earth, also deviates from the franchise’s established formula by setting its story on Earth rather than in outer space or on some distant world. Starring Timothy Olyphant, Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, and more, Alien: Earth promises to shake up the standard approach of Alien movies, as its story revolves around a crash-landed spaceship full of soldiers who discover the lethal Xenomorphs while stranded on the Blue Planet.

Alien and its 1986 James Cameron-directed sequel, Aliens, are widely considered the franchise’s best films. Centering on Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and her terrifying encounters with Xenomorphs, the first two movies are unnerving and full of thrills. Subsequent installments, such as 1992’s Alien 3, 1997’s Alien: Resurrection, fail to reach the heights of their predecessors, neither adding anything new to the franchise’s lore nor replicating the terrific scares and action sequences of Alien and Aliens. Alien: Earth will be the first project to release since 2024’s Alien: Romulus, which was generally praised, though it’s hard to see it as a truly franchise-reviving movie. In turn, Alien: Earth has the potential to do what Alien’s recent movies could not.

[RELATED: Where to Stream the Alien Movies (And the Best Order to Watch Them In)]

The Alien Franchise Has Long Strayed From Its Former Glory, but Alien: Earth Can Help

Unfortunately, the riveting horror elements and top-notch entertainment value of Alien: Romulus do not supersede substance. Set between Alien and Aliens, Romulus chronicles a group of young travelers’ harrowing fight to survive aboard a desolate space station full of facehuggers and xenomorphs. The film is exhilarating and features the highest-quality visual effects of any Alien entry; however, Romulus relies too heavily on nostalgia. Subtle callbacks to Alien are far from unreasonable, but the CGI reproduction of Ian Holm’s likeness for the android character Rook is so preposterous, it almost takes one out of the movie.

Before Romulus, the prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant added some much-needed complexity to the canon through elaboration on the xenomorph’s origin, but the films still don’t stack up to the action-packed thrills of the first two Alien movies. The excellence of Alien and Aliens stems from more than their wildly entertaining stories, as they’re also rife with substance. Alien takes on themes of technological advancement, corporate greed, and motherhood are repeated and expanded upon in Aliens, which simultaneously functions as an allegory for the Vietnam War.

Alien: Earth‘s focus on xenomorphs wreaking havoc on Earth is a fantastic direction for the franchise’s next chapter. Horror in the familiar setting of Earth instead of an unknown cosmic location has the potential to frighten audiences much more than past installments. Plus, audiences will be eager to find out how Earth has fared around the time of other Alien movies and learn how xenomorphs ended up on the planet. Alien: Earth is also set to incorporate human-robot hybrids into its material, adding another intriguing layer to the plot. Of course, the Alien vs. Predator films took place on Earth, but their non-canonical status and abysmal reception make most Alien fans want to ignore their existence. Thus, Alien: Earth appears to be the first title since Prometheus to bring something new and bold to the overarching story of Alien.

Alien: Earth‘s TV Format Gives it a Unique Advantage Over Recent Alien Movies

Alien: Earth can bring back everything that made the first two movies great while establishing an interesting new plot line. Given that the franchise has strayed from its former brilliance since Aliens, the switch to TV should excite fans. Alien: Earth‘s episodic format allows the series to develop a thematically rich plot without sacrificing substance for style. Furthermore, the show’s status as a prequel probably eliminates the overused nostalgia factor so many IPs lean into nowadays. A storyline set far away from all of Alien’s past narratives, Alien: Earth can take its time and bring about a tale that’s both horrifying and thought-provoking. As of now, Alien: Earth is set to debut its eight-episode first season in 2025, and if more seasons are greenlit, the show could build upon its foundation in a way the franchise’s movies never had the chance to.

Alien: Earth will premiere on August 12th on FX and Hulu.

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Alien has always been synonymous with the terrifying design of the xenomorph and the visceral body horror it unleashes. From Chestbursters to Facehuggers, the biological nightmare created by H.R. Giger has been the undisputed star of the sprawling multimedia franchise Ridley Scott kicked off in 1979. However, beneath the acid blood and double jaws, Alien has consistently explored unsettling questions about humanity, including the dire consequences of unchecked corporate power, the vast chasms of social inequality, and the ever-blurring lines of artificial intelligence. Now, with FX’s upcoming series Alien: Earth, creator Noah Hawley seems poised to delve into these thematic undercurrents deeper than ever before, particularly through the introduction of a new class of synthetic beings: hybrids. While the inevitable appearance of the iconic extraterrestrial predator will undoubtedly draw in a massive audience, it’s this exploration of consciousness, corporate ambition, and the very definition of life that promises to be the most thrilling aspect of Alien: Earth, especially under Hawley’s distinctive creative vision.

The recently released synopsis for Alien: Earth sets a chilling stage for the year 2120, a mere two years before the events of the original Alien film. By the time the series starts, Earth is governed by five powerful corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. In this “Corporate Era,” society is a mix of humans, cyborgs (humans with biological and artificial parts), and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence). The game, however, is set to be irrevocably altered by the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation, who unlocks a new technological marvel with the hybrids, described as humanoid robots infused with human consciousness.

[RELATED: Alien, Predator, and Terminator Redefined Slasher Horror by Adding a Sci-Fi Twist]

The first hybrid prototype, Wendy (Sydney Chandler), is hailed as the dawn of a new age in the pursuit of immortality. This premise alone is fertile ground for Noah Hawley, whose previous critically acclaimed works, Fargo and Legion, have masterfully dissected themes of identity, the fragility of the self, the ethics of power, and the often-surreal nature of existence. As such, the concept of hybrids in Alien: Earth taps directly into the morally complex, character-driven storytelling that has become Hawley’s signature, suggesting a narrative rich with existential questions even before a single xenomorph rears its elongated head.

Noah Hawley’s Unique Lens on Reality & Identity

In his TV work, Noah Hawley fundamentally reconstructs existing properties instead of merely adapting them, transforming familiar worlds into stages for intense character studies and explorations of complex human realities. His work on Legion stands as a primary testament to this approach. The series, centered on the Marvel Comics character David Haller (Dan Stevens), plunged viewers directly into the splintered psyche of its protagonist. Offering a bewildering immersion into David’s subjective experience, Legion constantly tears and re-stitches the fabric of reality to question how the human mind can shape the world around it. Hawley achieved this by prioritizing David’s internal journey, utilizing disorienting visuals, an unreliable narrative structure, and jarring shifts in perspective to make the character’s unstable mental state and unique perception of the world the series’ core narrative engine. In addition, the show consistently questioned the nature of memory and sanity, compelling audiences to experience the world through an unconventional and deeply fractured lens.

Similarly, Hawley’s acclaimed anthology series Fargo demonstrates his talent for dissecting the corrosion of morality and the multifaceted ways individuals perceive and react to extreme circumstances. Each season meticulously charts the descent of ordinary people into criminality, exploring how their personal histories, perceptions of threat, and often-flawed memories drive their fateful decisions. Beyond the intricate plots, Fargo excels in portraying the insidious ways systemic corruption and unchecked ambition can dismantle lives, all while examining the sometimes tragic and sometimes darkly comic ways its characters interpret and navigate their chaotic realities. As a result, Hawley’s unique take on the crime genre involves a deep dive into the subjective experiences and moral justifications of his characters, showcasing his fascination with individuals who see and interact with the world in decidedly different ways. All of that makes Hawley the best creative mind to explore the boundaries of consciousness within the Alien franchise.

Alen: Earth‘s Hybrids Take the Franchise Into an Exciting New Direction

The placement of Alien: Earth in 2120 means that the advanced hybrid technology introduced by Prodigy Corporation, specifically the human-consciousness-infused Wendy, is notably absent from the established cinematic timeline that follows. This strongly suggests that the hybrid program is either a closely guarded secret during the events of Alien: Earth, a catastrophic failure that gets buried, or perhaps deliberately eradicated by a competitor like the ever-present Weyland-Yutani. This inherent mystery surrounding the fate of the hybrids allows Hawley to tell a self-contained story that can explore radical new ideas without necessarily breaking established canon. 

The very nature of Alien: Earth‘s hybrids forces an exploration of profound existential questions concerning identity, autonomy, and the essence of humanity, especially when such beings could be considered corporate assets. Hawley’s demonstrated mastery in dissecting the complexities of selfhood and perception makes him uniquely suited to navigate the intense psychological and philosophical journeys these characters will undoubtedly undertake. Furthermore, Noah Hawley’s penchant for surreal visuals and non-linear storytelling, particularly evident in Legion, could find a powerful new outlet through the perspective of the hybrids. Hawley can leverage the hybrids’ unique sensory inputs and cognitive processes to craft mind-bending sequences, visualizing how these beings might experience memory, reality, and their own evolving identities.

This approach promises to inject a novel form of psychological horror into the franchise. Because of the hybrids, Alien: Earth can depict not only the external terror of the “mysterious life forms” teased in the synopsis but also an existential dread rooted in the hybrids’ potentially fractured or uniquely enhanced consciousness. As these characters confront the horrors of a corporate-controlled Earth and the inevitable xenomorph threat, their internal struggles with what they are becoming could prove to be the most unsettling and innovative aspect of Hawley’s vision for Alien. Therefore, Alien: Earth has the potential to push the franchise’s thematic boundaries, delving deeper into the nature of identity and what it truly means to be human in a world on the brink of radical technological transformation.

What philosophical and existential horrors do you think Noah Hawley will unleash with the introduction of hybrids in Alien: Earth?

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FX has officially set the premiere date for its highly anticipated series Alien: Earth, unleashing the xenomorphs onto humanity’s home turf starting Tuesday, August 12th. The announcement came alongside the show’s official synopsis and striking first-look images showcasing the main cast, including series lead Sydney Chandler as the synthetic hybrid known as Wendy. This eight-episode series, helmed by acclaimed creator Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion), marks a significant departure for the franchise, bringing the acid-blooded terror directly to Earth and setting its story in 2120, just two years before the fateful voyage of the USCSS Nostromo in the original 1979 masterpiece Alien. 

The official synopsis paints a chilling picture of Earth in 2120, a planet governed by five powerful corporations: Prodigy, the infamous Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. In this hyper-capitalist future, cyborgs and synthetics are part of everyday life. However, the founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation achieves a monumental breakthrough with the creation of Hybrids, humanoid robots infused with actual human consciousness, blurring the lines between artificial and organic life in a relentless race for immortality. The first of these Hybrids is Wendy, whose existence marks a pivotal moment in technological evolution.

[RELATED: Alien, Predator, and Terminator Redefined Slasher Horror by Adding a Sci-Fi Twist]

The world changes forever when a Weyland-Yutani deep space research vessel, the USCSS Maginot, mysteriously crash-lands right into Prodigy City, unleashing its deadly cargo. This catastrophic event forces Wendy and a group described as “a ragtag group of tactical soldiers” into a desperate fight for survival as they discover the ship carried “mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.”

The newly released images offer a glimpse at the human element caught in this nightmare, showcasing the expansive international cast. Alongside Chandler’s Wendy, the series features Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, Alex Lawther as Hermit, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Babou Ceesay as Morrow, Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins, David Rysdahl as Arthur Sylvia, Essie Davis as Dame Sylvia, and, significantly, Sandra Yi Sencindiver as a character named Yutani, potentially linking her directly to the notorious corporation. The cast also includes Lily Newmark (Nibs), Erana James (Curly), Adarsh Gourav (Slightly), Jonathan Ajayi (Smee), Kit Young (Tootles), Diêm Camille (Siberian), and Moe Bar-El (Rashidi), hinting at a large ensemble facing the xenomorph menace. Intriguingly, several character names (Wendy, Tootles, Smee, Slightly, Nibs, Curly) are direct references to characters from Peter Pan.

Xenomorphs Invade a Futuristic Earth Ruled by Corporations in Alien: Earth

Setting the Alien saga on Earth fundamentally changes the dynamic that has defined the franchise for over four decades. Instead of solitary space stations or desolate alien worlds, Hawley brings horror home, placing the xenomorph threat squarely within human civilization, specifically the corporate-controlled sprawl of Prodigy City. This choice aligns perfectly with the franchise’s latent concern with class struggle and the stark inequalities inherent in this future. In addition, the potential for widespread infestation and the breakdown of societal order on Earth itself raises the stakes exponentially compared to previous installments.

The timeline placement of 2120 is perhaps the most tantalizing detail for longtime fans. Occurring just two years before the Nostromo crew answers the distress call from the Derelict ship on LV-426 in Alien, this series could completely recontextualize the origins of Weyland-Yutani’s obsession with the xenomorph. Did the corporation already know about the creatures before activating Special Order 937? Is the crash of the USCSS Maginot the first time Weyland-Yutani encounters the species, perhaps triggering the secret directives that would later doom Ellen Ripley’s crew? The presence of a character explicitly named Yutani only deepens this mystery, suggesting a potential look inside the company’s highest echelons just as this nightmare begins.

And then there are the monsters themselves. Previous trailers feature the relentless presence of Facehuggers and glimpses of the iconic xenomorphs, promising the visceral body horror and terrifying creature design the franchise is known for. The trailers for Alien: Earth also teased brand new creatures, including what looks like an eight–legged monster. By the looks of it, the xenomorph is not the only creature Weyland-Yutani has been studying in outer space.

The premiere of Alien: Earth will kick off with a two-episode drop on Tuesday, August 12th. Viewers can catch the terrifying debut simultaneously on Hulu starting at 8 p.m. ET and on the FX linear channel at 8 p.m. ET/PT. International audiences will be able to stream the series premiere on Disney+ the same day. Following the launch, a new episode will premiere weekly each Tuesday, maintaining the same time slots on Hulu and FX.

What are you most excited to see when the xenomorphs finally make landfall in Alien: Earth this August? Let us know in the comments!

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In 1979’s Alien, the crew of the Nostromo was stalked and hunted by the now-iconic xenomorph, while each entry in the film franchise has amplified the terror in thrilling ways. Throughout the saga, new chapters would feature larger quantities of creature, or would display all-new variations of the otherworldly beast. While previous teasers for the upcoming Alien: Earth TV series from Noah Hawley hinted at fresh evolutions of the monster, the latest teaser confirms that fans can expect five variations of the frightening animal. You can check out the latest teaser for Alien: Earth above, which is expected to debut later this summer on FX on Hulu.

When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in the sci-fi horror series Alien: Earth. As members of the crash recovery crew search for survivors among the wreckage, they encounter mysterious predatory life forms more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. With this new threat unlocked, the search crew must fight for survival and what they choose to do with this discovery could change planet Earth as they know it.

Lead by Sydney Chandler, the series showcases an expansive international cast which includes Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille, and Moe Bar-El.

[RELATED – New Alien: Earth Footage Takes Us on a Terrifying Tour (And Is Packed With Easter Eggs)]

This new Alien: Earth teaser marked an exciting surprise for fans of the franchise in honor of today being “Alien Day.” For those unaware, every April 26th since 2016, 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox) celebrated all corners of the franchise through special announcements, screenings, merchandise drops, and franchise updates. That first Alien Day took place in that year as it marked the 30th anniversary of James Cameron’s Aliens, with the date itself also being significant for the series. In Aliens, the xenomorphs have overrun a community on a moon known as LV-426 — making April 26th, or 4/26, a direct reference to the events of that film.

Luckily for fans, Alien: Earth isn’t the only exciting project on the horizon for the series, as the massive success of last year’s Alien: Romulus resulted in the confirmation from director Fede Álvarez that he was developing a follow-up to that installment. It’s currently unclear if that project will be a continuation of Romulus or yet another adventure set in the world that takes place at a different point in the mythology’s timeline.

Even with the success of Romulus, Alien fans are arguably the most excited for Alien: Earth, as it marks the first time the franchise has earned a longform TV series. Not only does the storytelling structure change up how the adventure will unfold, allowing audiences to spend more time in this world, but the project hails from Hawley, who earned acclaim for Legion and Fargo. Based on how ambitious and unexpected both of those two series were, fans have no idea what they’re in for with the new project.

Alien: Earth is set to land on FX on Hulu later this summer.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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Alien: Earth is coming to television screens, and FX-Hulu is letting you know with another ominous teaser for the series, in honor of… Earth Day. Like the previous marketing for Alien: Earth, this new teaser takes on the form of a generic PSA ad for planet Earth, highlighting all the creatures, culture, and natural wonders that must be protected on our world. Of course, that lovely sentiment turns on a dime, as a zoomed-out picture of the Earth floating in space transforms to reveal a xenomorph embryo nesting in the core of the Earth – all of which is promptly swallowed up in the jaws of a giant xenomorph drone, which bursts into the frame and fills the screen with total darkness.

Watch the new Alien: Earth, Earth Day teaser below!

Alien: Earth TV Series: What We Know So Far

Alien: Earth‘s story teases the dark turn of fate after “a space vessel crash-lands on Earth.” When Earth’s forces come to investigate the vessel, “a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s biggest threat.” 

A recent clip from Alien: Earth‘s premiere episode seemed to tease a situation where a synthetic android is piloting a ship infested with xenomorphs toward a direct impact with Earth… all while the final remnants of the crew are being slaughtered. That small scene carries massive implications; the Alien franchise has always mixed the threat of monstrous alien beasts with the often-greater theater of humanity’s bend toward capitalistic madness and worker exploitation, as well as the looming rise of thinking machines and androids, which further threaten to make humans obsolete, if not extinct.

[RELATED: Everything We Know About Alien: Earth (And How It Connects to the Alien Movies)]

Alien: Earth is being positioned as a prequel to Ridley Scott’s original 1979 Alien film, set two years before the events of that film. That raises interesting questions about the show’s stakes; As far as we know (according to Alien movie canon), Earth never had a xenomorph outbreak, let alone being overrun by the creatures (unless you believe the story of AvP). That said, the franchise has never addressed what made the Weyland-Yutani corporation issue the orders to the Nostromo’s android science officer, Ash (Ian Holm), to secure the xenomorph sample, or why the company even had a mandate that their vessels had to respond to distress calls indicating the existence of intelligent alien life. Ridley Scott left those questions open-ended; Alien: Earth may be the story of how Weyland-Yutani first became aware of the xenomorph species – and why they were so hellbent on securing new samples, if all the specimens that crashed on Earth are eventually wiped out.

The show’s cast includes Sydney Chandler as Wendy, who is “a young woman who has the body of an adult and consciousness of a child.” Timothy Olyphant (Justified) stars as Kirsh, a synthetic who serves as Wendy’s “mentor and trainer.” Alex Lawther plays a soldier named CJ; Samuel Blenkin is a CEO named Boy Kavalier; Essie Davis is Dame Silvia; Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, and Kit Young as Tootles. Other cast members haven’t had their characters names revealed yet, with Sandra Yi Sencindiver playing a recurring role as “a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.”

Alien: Earth is set to premiere in the Summer of 2025 on FX-Hulu.

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A new preview for Alien: Earth dropped on Saturday, and the xenomorph’s violence is played off so casually that it’s absolutely horrifying. The scene is very reminiscent of the original Alien, which makes sense since this series will be a prequel set about two years before Ripley’s original fight for survival. We see the inside of a ship with the same retro-style technology as the original movie, but things aren’t going as well here as they did on the Nostromo. This seems to be the inciting incident for the whole show, which is expected to premiere sometime this summer on FX on Hulu.

The logline for Alien: Earth reads, “When a space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s biggest threat.” From the looks of it, this clip depicts the last moments of that vessel before its fateful crash. It shows man at the ship’s computer controls coldly ignoring the pleas of a young woman banging at the door as a xenomorph approaches her. This mirrors the scene in the original movie where Ripley uncovers Ash’s secret conversations with the computer, Mother.

All this seems to indicate that the person at the controls is a “sythentic,” or an android, just like Ash. He also seems to have been given secret instructions to keep the xenomorph alive and bring it to Earth, even if it cost the lives of the crew, damage to the ship, or his own life. The computer ominously predicts their crash trajectory on humanity’s home world.

[RELATED: First Official Alien: Earth Footage Released (Including a Look at the Xenomorph)]

After this scene ends, we see some of the same footage from FX and Hulu’s recent teaser video for their entire 2025 slate. That includes an aerial shot of a valley — presumably where the ship will crash — as well as a tactical response team moving through the area, and a xenomorph screeching into a terrified victim’s face. However, we also get a couple of new shots, which are close-ups of new characters we haven’t met yet.

The hype is building, but they’re leaving the big questions about Alien: Earth unanswered. If this show is a prequel to the original 1979 film, we have to assume that the xenomorph is contained or killed, as Earth doesn’t seem to be overrun with xenomorphs in later films including Aliens and Alien: Resurrection. That doesn’t leave this show completely devoid of stakes, however. We have to wonder what this encounter means for Weyland-Yutani Corp and how it influences the company’s future decisions.

The biggest question, of course, is the release date. So far, FX and Hulu have only said that Alien: Earth will premiere sometime in the summer. Check back for more details as they become available, and in the meantime, many of the Alien titles are streaming now on Hulu.

The post New Alien: Earth Clip Is Absolutely Terrifying (And We’re All In) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Usually, when people think of slashers, images of a man in the mask with a knife come to mind. However, there is so much more to the horror subgenre than that. Often times, the slasher hunts down a group of people, killing them in unique and haunting ways. There is also often a sole survivor known as the “final girl.” When looking at a slasher film from that perspective, an argument could be made that sci-fi classics like Alien, Predator and Terminator are unique takes on the slasher subgenre, revolutionizing what it means to be a slasher.

These are not straightforward horror movies, blending genre elements from science-fiction and action films, but they are revolutionary approaches to what a slasher could be. Plus, they are not just abiding by the themes often associated with slasher films. They are also bringing in themes more common with science-fiction, leading to a larger discussions about the fears of society at the time of each movies’ release.

Why Alien, Predator & Terminator Are Great Slashers

Out of these three, the first one to come out, Alien, is also the most like a horror movie. While it is set in space and the titular “slasher” is an extra-terrestrial monster, Alien has a classic slasher structure despite the subgenre just kicking off in cinema history. In it, a group of blue-collar workers are hunted down one by one by a near unstoppable killer, the xenomorph. Alien‘s horror elements go beyond its film structure. The alien itself feels at home with horror monsters like the shark from Jaws, for instance.

Along with that, there are gruesome deaths throughout Alien, including the xenomorph birth scene, as well as plenty of filming techniques that feel at home in the horror genre — flashing lights, jump scares, shadow play. On top of all of that, Alien has a scathing anti-capitalist message, highlighting how corporations do not care about their workers.

Both science-fiction and horror are no stranger to making a commentary on the fears of society, which is what Alien does, and it is also what The Terminator does. However, in Terminator’s case, that movie serves as a warning about AI and technology while also raising questions about free will, agency, and fate. Terminator sees a “slasher” stalking his prey; yet, unlike most slashers, the Terminator has his eyes set on one target in particular. While Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger prey on a large ensemble of characters, the Terminator just wants Sarah Connor, but he will kill anyone in his way.

[RELATED – Predator Fired Another Action Movie Legend From Playing Its Biggest Role]

Terminator has other horror elements; although, they are more toned down than Alien. This is in large part due to the movie also being an action-thriller, and those thriller elements go hand in hand with horror. Suspense is a massive player in a thriller or horror film, and that is the case for Terminator as well, especially during the climax. Plus, Sarah Connor, like Ripley from Alien, makes a phenomenal final girl. Despite it all, she survives her nightmare and puts up an incredible fight doing so.

Meanwhile, Predator, lacks a traditional final girl, but it takes on a more traditional slasher structure, like Alien does. In it, the Predator comes to Earth to hunt down humans he deems worthy of his skill. He is honestly more slasher than he is monster, especially given how smart he is and how he approaches his kills. Like Terminator, though, Predator is more than just a sci-fi film or scary movie. It is an action film, too, and it is with these action elements that it gets more difficult to claim that Predator or Terminator are slasher films.

Sci-Fi Took Slashers Up Out of the Suburbs

All three films – Alien, Predator, and Terminator – are genre blends. As such, they are uniquely their own thing, and they take some of the best from their respective genres and twist them in inventive ways. In terms of the horror and sci-fi genres, both are known for making commentaries on society, and by blending them together, this elevates each films warning to society to another level.

The slasher subgenre, for instance, often deals with themes of some sort of intruder or outsider disrupting the comfort of what was once thought to be a safe space. Suburbia, a summer camp, school, and even dreams have all been used as settings for classic slasher films. Along with that, these films can often be metaphors for how trauma can resurface and create a cycle of hurt and violence, as is the case for A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.

Meanwhile, science-fiction is a genre that often points at the massive flaws of consumerism and capitalism, as seen in the recent Mickey 17. It is also a genre that often raises questions about agency and humanity through robotic avatars, as seen in the classic Blade Runner and the 2025 hit film Companion. Where horror is often a reflection of current fears in society, science-fiction can build off these fears and act as a warning for the future – or, even worse, stoke our fears about the vast unknowns that are still out there in the universe, like (superior) alien lifeforms, technology run amok, or prophecies of a nightmarish future that is unavoidable.

The Xenomorph, Predator, and Terminator are no Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger, but they function in similar ways to these iconic slashers while standing out on their own. They also put classic sci-fi themes – which are terrifying on their own – in a more foreboding, horrific light, thereby creating a hybrid blend of the best of both genres. There’s a reason that these franchises have stood the test of time, and expanded sci-fi/horror into its own viable lane of films.

You can stream these films online.

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The original Alien featured a large ensemble of compelling characters who audiences connected with, but arguably the character that caught the most empathy was the orange cat Jonesy. Luckily, Jonsey managed to survive the mayhem of that debut installment, but in mysterious new footage to build excitement for the TV series Alien: Earth, another feline also encounters some intense situations. The above footage features all-new looks at the Noah Hawley TV series that sees a cat venturing through the Maginot ship, which also features references to iconic elements of Alien lore, from the MU/TH/UR operating system to hyper sleep chambers. Check out the cryptic new footage above and stay tuned for updates on Alien: Earth, which is set to premiere on FX later this year.

The series is described, “When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s highly anticipated TV series Alien: Earth from creator Noah Hawley.”

Joining Chandler in the series are Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El. Just earlier this week, new cast members Richa Moorjani, Karen Aldridge, Enzo Cilenti, Max Rinehart, Amir Boutrous, Victoria Masoma, Tom Moya, Andy Yu, Michael Smiley, Jamie Bisping, and Tanapol Chuksrida were also announced.

[RELATED – Alien: Earth Fills Out Its Cast (but Who Will Survive?)]

As evidenced by this new footage, one of the more compelling components of the project is just how mysterious the entire project remains to even the most die-hard Alien fans. One of the bigger hits in the realm of cinematic sci-fi and horror in 2024 was Alien: Romulus, which performed well with both audiences and critics, resulting in the announcement that a follow-up film was on the way from director Fede Álvarez. While Romulus served largely as a spinoff from the main narrative, it still fell within the established mythology of the original franchise, with its timeline fitting between the events of Alien and Aliens.

Hawley earned tremendous success with his TV series Fargo, another expansion of an established narrative. Rather than his narrative attempting to re-tell the original story or serve as any direct continuation of the 1996 movie from Joel and Ethan Coen, FX’s Fargo served more as a spiritual successor to its namesake, borrowing core concepts, tones, and themes for an all-new story. Each season served as a standalone story, though all of them remixed and reimagined the overall feeling of the original movie.

In this respect, fans are waiting with immense anticipation of how Hawley will honor the events of the beloved Alien franchise while also putting an all-new and unexpected spin on it. Fans attending the South by Southwest Festival can visit an Alien: Earth activation on March 7th and March 8th at 318 E 5th St. Lot between 2:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Stay tuned for updates on Alien: Earth before it premieres on FX later this year.

Are you looking forward to the series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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Alien: Earth announced 11 new cast members on Tuesday, hot on the heels of the show’s first-ever preview on Sunday night. The new cast members are Richa Moorjani, Karen Aldridge, Enzo Cilenti, Max Rinehart, Amir Boutrous, Victoria Masoma, Tom Moya, Andy Yu, Michael Smiley, Jamie Bisping, and Tanapol Chuksrida. None of their roles have been announced yet, but as their story is a prequel to the original 1979 Alien, we’re not likely to know who they are anyway. FX is advertising Alien: Earth hard now for release this summer on Hulu. We still don’t know when exactly the show will be available to stream.

Alien: Earth is set two years before the original Alien, and for the first time ever, it brings the monstrous xenomorph to our home planet. The official logline reads: “When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.”

Chandler’s character, Wendy, is reportedly “a young woman who has the body of an adult and consciousness of a child.” Timothy Olyphant plays Kirsh, a synthetic who serves as Wendy’s “mentor and trainer.” The cast also includes Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin as a CEO named Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, and Kit Young as Tootles. Several other cast members have been announced without their characters being specified, although Sandra Yi Sencindiver has a recurring role as “a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.”

[RELATED: Everything We Know About Alien: Earth (And How It Connects to the Alien Movies)]

The first Alien: Earth footage released to the public played during an FX ad on Sunday night during the Oscars. It was only about six seconds long, but judging from social media commentary, it left quite an impression on viewers. Many weren’t aware of the show before, and their anticipation is split between excitement and wariness.

The Alien franchise has always kept its signature xenomorph far from earth, preserving the extreme threat that it would pose to all of human civilization if it could get there. Since we don’t see much of the planet in the series, we don’t know its condition for sure, but the movies seem to hint that humanity is alive and thriving down on earth. That means either the monster in this movie will be defeated and contained, or else the impression we got of earth in later movies was wrong.

Alien: Earth is slated for release sometime this summer on Hulu. An exact release date has not been set, but in the meantime, other Alien movies are streaming there now.

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We got our very first look at Alien: Earth on Sunday night, but we didn’t see much. Footage from the upcoming prequel series was included in a teaser for all of the FX Networks’ shows, including new and returning shows. The whole thing was just over a minute, and the Alien footage is about six seconds long on its own. Still, it shows us the terrifying sight of a xenomorph on our home planet — something that the main series has never done in over five decades. The clip also includes an ominous line in voice-over, saying, “When the monsters come, all you can do is scream.”

Alien: Earth is a prequel set about two years before the events of the original Alien movie, so it’s especially unnerving to see a xenomorph on our home planet here. The clip we got on Sunday night during the Oscars starts with an establishing shot of earth from space, followed by a shot from inside a spacecraft, where the stasis pods are opening up just like in the film. We then see a team of heavily armed soldiers walking cautiously through some tall grass, followed by a look at three of the show’s stars in a wooded area. These appear to be Sydney Chandler as Wendy, Alex Lawther as CJ, and Lily Newmark in an unnamed role.

The next shot is an aerial view of a secluded valley — perhaps the site of this crash landing. Finally, we get to the xenomorph. we see fingers trailing slime from an face-hugger egg followed by a glimpse of Timothy Olyphant as the synthetic, Kirsh, then we see the soldiers entering a cave. The last shot is a xenomorph snarling into someone’s face, but we can’t tell who.

[RELATED: Everything We Know About Alien: Earth (And How It Connects to the Alien Movies)]

According to FX and Hulu, Alien: Earth begins with a spacecraft crash-landing on earth and being discovered by “a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers.” They unwittingly find themselves “face-to-face with the planet’s biggest threat.” The distributors also provided some character descriptions — Wendy is “a woman who has the body of an adult and consciousness of a child,” while Kirsh is her “synthetic mentor and trainer.” CJ is a soldier, we also know that Sandra Yi Sendcindiver has a recurring role as “a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.”

Alien: Earth saw production delays caused by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes, but it finally wrapped filming in July of 2024. It is expected to premiere on Hulu sometime this summer, but an exact release date has not been set yet. For now, fans online are picking apart every frame of this preview, so it’s safe to say the show has found an eager audience.

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Aliens are coming to Earth and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. We’re talking about fictional aliens, of course, in the fictional universe of Alien. After a resurgence in the film franchise, thanks to Alien: Romulus, the iconic sci-fi/horror series is making its way to television for Alien: Earth. Noah Hawley’s highly anticipated TV project is coming to Hulu this summer and the cryptic teasers for the show are continuing to invade the Internet.

On Thursday morning, Hulu and FX released another brief teaser for Alien: Earth, this time not only hinting at the arrival of the show, but also revealing an immersive experience set to take place at SXSW next month. Take a look in the video above!

The immersive experience will take place March 7th and 8th in Austin, Texas, as fans at SXSW will be able to explore the wreckage of the ship that brought the Xenomorphs to Earth. “Visitors will be scanned for alien parasites before receiving credentials and instructions, embarking them on an exploratory mission through the ship wreckage where they will have the chance to get up close and personal with alien specimens,” reads the brief description of the experience. “But beware—not all creatures survived the crash intact, a containment breach has occurred and hidden dangers lurk within.”

[RELATED: Alien: Romulus Reveals Horrifying Alternate Designs for the Offspring]

Hawley has talked plenty about the fresh kind of hell the Xenomorphs will unleash throughout Alien: Earth. Speaking to Deadline last year, the prolific TV creator explained why this version of the creatures are going to be more horrifying than ever before.

“There’s something about seeing a Xenomorph in the wilds of Earth with your own eyes,” said Hawley. “It’s truly chilling to think of it moving here among us, and so I can’t tell you under what circumstances you’ll see that, but you’ll see it – and you’re going to lock your door that night.”

“What was really fun for me was to really engage with the creature, bring some of my own thoughts to the design while not touching the silhouette, because that’s sacrosanct,” he added. “But some of the elements as we know, whatever the host is, informs what the final creature is. I just wanted to play around a little bit to make it as scary as can be.”

Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

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Artist Dane Hallett has shared previously unseen concept art for Alien: Romulus‘ terrifying hybrid creature, The Offspring, offering a glimpse into the evolutionary process behind one of the franchise’s most unique monsters. The alternate designs, posted on Hallett’s Instagram account, showcase various iterations of the human-xenomorph hybrid that appears in the film’s climactic third act. These early concepts maintain the creature’s distinctive humanoid qualities while experimenting with different levels of biomechanical features and xenomorph characteristics, including versions that lean more heavily into the iconic black metallic skin of the traditional aliens. The final design that made it to the screen represented a deliberate balance between human and alien features, creating one of the most memorable new additions to the franchise’s bestiary.

Speaking to his social media followers, Hallett emphasized the creative freedom required in concept art development.

“As a concept artist it is your job to try weird sh-t in the hopes you land somewhere original,” the artist explained. “I don’t know if I managed to do that with these, but as with this whole job I was keen to try and bring something familiar, but new.” He also expressed gratitude for the positive fan response, noting, “Thanks so much for all the positivity. It’s supremely encouraging.”

[RELATED: 3 Alien Franchise Sequels That Didn’t Get Made (But Should Have)]

The Offspring proved to be one of Romulus‘ most shocking elements, born after Kay Harrison (Isabela Merced) injects herself with the experimental compound Z-01, triggering a horrific transformation of her unborn child. The creature’s unique design, brought to life through a combination of practical effects and former basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi’s performance, helped establish it as distinct from traditional xenomorphs while maintaining the franchise’s signature biomechanical aesthetic. Director Fede Álvarez’s decision to primarily use practical effects for the creature aligns with the film’s overall approach to horror, which has contributed to its impressive $350-million global box office success and critical acclaim.

How Romulus‘ Success Is Shaping the Franchise’s Future

Alien: Romulus has emerged as a watershed moment for the long-running franchise, becoming only the second film in the series to cross $100 million at the domestic box office after Prometheus. In addition, the film’s global earnings have surpassed $350 million, a remarkable achievement that validates Disney’s decision to shift from a planned Hulu release to a theatrical run.

Beyond its commercial triumph, Romulus has reinvigorated the franchise’s creative potential. The film’s practical effects philosophy, showcased in creatures like The Offspring, has proven that modern audiences still crave tangible horror over pure CGI spectacle. This approach, combined with the movie’s effective blend of new elements and classic Alien traditions, has created a template for future installments. While no sequel has been officially greenlit, the film’s performance makes future theatrical entries likely, especially given Disney’s renewed confidence in the franchise’s box office viability.

The success of Romulus has helped increase the hype surrounding other franchise projects. Alien: Earth, the series’ first television venture, is scheduled to debut on Hulu in 2025. Set two years before the events of the original 1979 film, the show will bring xenomorphs to Earth for the first time in the main continuity.

Alien: Romulus is currently available on Hulu.

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The upcoming Hulu series Alien: Earth is set to bring the Alien franchise to the small screen, and expand the popular sci-fi franchise into new territory. The Alien franchise began in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s eponymous original movie and has since spawned three direct sequels, three prequels, and the Alien vs. Predator spin-off movies. That’s in addition to the Alien franchise also expanding into other popular media, such as comic books and video games.

Alien has had a somewhat shaky reception since Scott’s original film and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens, but it has nonetheless been a cornerstone for both sci-fi and horror fans, with 2024’s Alien: Romulus being credited with re-invigorating the series. That re-invigoration is set to continue with the debut of Alien: Earth later this year: here is everything that is currently known about the Alien TV series, and how it could connect to the movies that preceded it.

Alien: Earth Plot & Timeline

Alien: Earth acts as a prequel to the majority of the Alien franchise, taking place two years before the original Alien. The series will focus upon the aftermath of a spacecraft crash landing on Earth, bringing the xenomorphs onto the planet. This makes Alien: Earth the third installment of the Alien franchise to take place on Earth, following the two Earth-set Alien vs. Predator movies. With Alien: Earth‘s taking place on Earth, the series has a bit more heavy lifting as a prequel to do, in order to coordinate its story with the franchise’s larger canon – namely the fact that xenomorphs are not a known species to most humans, or among the general population of Earth.

Nor, for that matter, has a mass xenomorph invasion of Earth made its way into mankind’s history books at any point during the Alien franchise. Considering how much the Predator franchise has distanced itself from the Alien vs. Predator movies, it seems unlikely that Alien: Earth will try to address that issue. In either case, the show being the rare example of the xenomorphs making it to Earth opens countless possibilities to either establish its story as the first recorded instance of the xenomorph’s presence on Earth, or one of multiple incidents that have been heavily concealed from the public by the U.S. and other world governments.

RELATED: Alien: Earth Creator Says Series Will Give Fans “Something Special”

The Characters of Alien: Earth

While none of the characters of the mainline Alien franchise have any confirmed appearances in Alien: Earth, the series will introduce some new characters into the Alien universe. The main protagonist of Alien: Earth is Wendy (Sydney Chandler), an adult woman who carries a child’s consciousness in her mind. Timothy Olyphant also appears in Alien: Earth as Kirsh, who will reportedly serve as a mentor for Wendy.

Other characters to be introduced in Alien: Earth include Boy Kavalier, CJ, Dame Silvia, Tootles, and Slightly – played (respectively) by Samuel Blenkin, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Kit Young, and Adarsh Gourav. Additionally, Weyland-Yutani will also have a representative present in Alien: Earth, with Sandra Yi Sencindiver set to appear on the show as an unnamed high-ranking Weyland-Yutani official.

The Connection Between Alien: Earth & The Alien Movies

The makers of Alien: Earth have emphasized that the series will have a more direct relationship with the main Alien series than with its fellow prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. While Alien: Earth might be placing its story within very specific parameters with that approach, there are also a number of other ways in which the show could connect to the Alien movies. One of them could even directly involve the main plot of Ridley Scott’s Alien. With Alien: Earth‘s setting and timeframe, it could play directly into the efforts of the Weyland-Yutani corporation to ensure the xenomorph unleashed upon the crew of the Nostromo is brought back to Earth (Weyland-Yuanti even coldly decreeing the “crew expendable” in this edict).

With Alien: Earth taking place just two years before Alien, the series might establish its story as being how the Weyland-Yutani first discovered the xenomorph species existed. In turn, Alien: Earth would reveal Weyland-Yutani concocting a plot to divert the returning Nostromo to LV-426 (as seen in the Nostromo’s response to a distress call from LV-426 in Alien) with the purposeful goal of the crew encountering the facehuggers and bringing a Xenomorph back to Earth. If Alien: Earth links itself to the first Alien in that way, it could also indicate other doors of a similar nature being opened – including the origins of the xenomorphs themselves. That is if Alien: Earth is greenlit for Season 2.

Alien: Earth will debut on FX on Hulu in 2025.

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The xenomorphs are coming to our world this summer, bringing with them the reign of terror they’ve instilled on ships and space stations since the 1970s. Alien: Earth, debuting on Hulu later this year, is the first TV series to come from the iconic Alien franchise. Series creator Noah Hawley has taken the chilling concepts created by Ridley Scott’s original film and brought them to Earth, unleashing a new kind of horror.

Alien: Earth doesn’t hit Hulu until the summer, but FX and the streamer have been releasing teasers to get fans excited for what’s to come. The newest teaser was released on Sunday evening, and it shows a manic xenomorph trying to escape a ship as it crashes to the planet we call home. You can check out the full teaser in the video below!

Don’t think there will be any shortage of Xenomorphs in this new Alien series, even if the production is for the small screen. This teaser makes it clear that the ferocious aliens are going to be a massive force for the people of Earth.

Hawley has also talked about the fresh kind of hell the Xenomorphs will unleash throughout Alien: Earth. Speaking to Deadline last year, the prolific TV creator explained why this version of the creatures are going to be more horrifying than ever before.

[RELATED: Official Alien: Earth Logline Revealed]

“There’s something about seeing a Xenomorph in the wilds of Earth with your own eyes,” said Hawley. “It’s truly chilling to think of it moving here among us, and so I can’t tell you under what circumstances you’ll see that, but you’ll see it – and you’re going to lock your door that night.”

“What was really fun for me was to really engage with the creature, bring some of my own thoughts to the design while not touching the silhouette, because that’s sacrosanct,” he added. “But some of the elements as we know, whatever the host is, informs what the final creature is. I just wanted to play around a little bit to make it as scary as can be.”

Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

The highly anticipated Alien series from FX is going to be hitting Hulu this summer. Unfortunately, a more specific release date hasn’t been announced just yet.

The post New Alien: Earth Teaser Sets Up the Xenomorph Invasion appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Earth is expecting, but it might not be a happy event. FX has released a new teaser along with art for the upcoming series Alien: Earth and it is offering up the most chilling look yet at the highly anticipated series in the Alien franchise. But it isn’t just a frightening new look at the Xenomorph invasion that fans got on Wednesday. They also got an idea of when they can expect things to arrive and it’s sooner than you might think. Alien: Earth will be released Summer 2025. You can check out the teaser for yourself in the video below as well as the new art that reveals a cracked Earth.

The new teaser for Alien: Earth is brief, but it definitely drives home the threat, with the blue Earth reflected in the Xenomorph as well as plenty of atmospheric noises that just up the fear and danger factors. Series creator Noah Hawley has previously teased that the series will feature a new kind of Xenomorph than what fans are used to from previous entries in the Alien franchise.

“There’s something about seeing a Xenomorph in the wilds of Earth with your own eyes,” Hawley said. “It’s truly chilling to think of it moving here among us, and so I can’t tell you under what circumstances you’ll see that, but you’ll see it — and you’re going to lock your door that night.”

[RELATED: Ridley Scott’s Alien Movie Could Pay Off a Years-Long Tease After All]

“What was really fun for me was to really engage with the creature, bring some of my own thoughts to the design while not touching the silhouette, because that’s sacrosanct,” he added. “But some of the elements as we know, whatever the host is, informs what the final creature is. I just wanted to play around a little bit to make it as scary as can be.”

The series comes in the wake of the latest entry in the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus. That film also offered some new elements to the overall universe and the style of the Xenomorphs, particularly with that film delivering a brand-new creature known as the Offspring which emerged after A Xenomorph utilized a pregnant woman as a host with the child being born a hybrid creature — something that was nightmare fuel in and of itself. With subtle additions and expansions such as this that don’t change the iconic design of the Xenomorph but simply add layers and dimension to the lore, the overall franchise remains fresh and it will be interesting to see how Alien: Earth adds to that.

In Alien: Earth, when a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discover that puts them face to face with the planet’s greatest threat in the sci-fi horror series. As members of the crash recovery crew search for survivors among the wreckage, they encounter mysterious predatory life forms more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. With this new threat unlocked, the search crew must fight for survival and what they choose to do with this discover could change planet Earth as they know it.

Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

Alien: Earth arrives Summer 2025 on Hulu.

The post Mother Earth is Expecting in Terrifying New Alien: Earth Teaser (And We Know When It Arrives) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Xenomorph invasion is upon us in new footage from Alien: Earth. While there have been several Alien movies, with Alien: Romulus being the most recent to hit theaters, fans have yet to see an Alien TV show… until now. Alien: Earth is an upcoming prequel series on Hulu from creator Noah Hawley. The first teaser trailer for Alien: Earth was released in September, and now a sizzle reel of Disney+ content in 2025 reveals even more footage for the first Alien series. And in true Alien fashion, there are plenty of horrors and Xenomorphs to get fans excited.

The footage of Alien: Earth shown in the Disney+ 2025 trailer is short, but it does give an overall feel for the series. It’s worth noting that Alien: Earth is a Hulu series that will also be available on Disney+. “This ship collected specimens from far away moon,” a voiceover says. “Monsters.” We see scenes inside the referenced ship, along with three people emerging from underwater to go inside what looks like a cave. Finally, we see the big moon and a quick look at a Xenomorph.

[RELATED: How Alien Romulus Connects to Alien Movies & Prometheus Explained]

Created by Noah Hawley, Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

“When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s highly anticipated TV series Alien: Earth from creator Noah Hawley,” a description of Alien: Earth reads.

Since the first Alien series takes place on Earth, it opens the franchise up to new storytelling possibilities. Hawley did previously tease that it will offer longtime fans “something special.”

[RELATED: How to Watch Alien: Romulus Online, and Where to Stream the Alien Movies in Order]

“We just wrapped,” Hawley revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m in post, editing away. Obviously, there’s a large visual effects component that takes time. But I couldn’t be happier with the show that we shot. If people wanted a television series based on the world of Alien, I think I’m going to give them something special.”

Filmmaker Ridley Scott confirmed he is developing a new Alien movie, though it is unclear if it’s a follow-up to Alien: Romulus or something entirely new. Alien: Earth premieres in 2025 on Hulu / Disney+.

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The Alien franchise is aiming to develop a new kind of terror for the small screen, as the mind behind Legion and FX’s Fargo brings xenomorphs to television in 2025. Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth is set to premiere on Hulu next year, and it will see the franchise telling a full story here on our home planet. Along with the relatively new Alien locale, there will also be some changes to the xenomorphs themselves.

At the Emmys on Sunday night, Hawley caught up with Deadline to talk about his highly anticipated new FX series. The creator opened up about just how scary xenomorphs can be, which led to a little hint that the creatures in this series will look a bit different than what we’re used to.

“There’s something about seeing a Xenomorph in the wilds of Earth with your own eyes,” said Hawley. “It’s truly chilling to think of it moving here among us, and so I can’t tell you under what circumstances you’ll see that, but you’ll see it – and you’re going to lock your door that night.”

“What was really fun for me was to really engage with the creature, bring some of my own thoughts to the design while not touching the silhouette, because that’s sacrosanct,” he added. “But some of the elements as we know, whatever the host is, informs what the final creature is. I just wanted to play around a little bit to make it as scary as can be.”

The overall design of the xenomorph is iconic and, like Hawley said, shouldn’t really be changed. There have been different versions of the aliens over the years, largely dictated by the planets and beings playing host to their hatching system. The xenomorphs have had slightly different styles, in addition to some completely new creations that have come from those xenomorphs over the years.

Take the recent hit Alien: Romulus for example. The film had classic xenomorphs but also included a brand new being that has become known as the offspring. A xenomorph used a pregnant woman as its host, and the child she gave birth to was something of a human/xenomorph hybrid. The offspring immediately went down as one of the most chilling creatures to come from the entire Alien franchise and has stuck around in the minds of fans since they saw it in the theater.

With that in mind, there’s no limit to what someone like Hawley could do with xenomorph lore, especially with the human world as his playground.

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It’s been an exciting few weeks for Alien fans, as we were not only given the theatrical release Alien: Romulus, but fans who saw that experience in theaters were given a glimpse at the upcoming TV series Alien: Earth, with that teaser having officially landed online today. Additionally, while various tidbits about the upcoming series have emerged over the years, FX has also officially released the logline for the new series, hinting at how the experience will connect to the larger world of Alien. You can check out the first teaser for Alien: Earth below before it comes to Hulu in 2025.

The series is described, “When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s highly anticipated TV series Alien: Earth from creator Noah Hawley.”

Lead by Chandler, the series showcases an expansive international cast which includes Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

The Alien franchise kicked off in 1979, with Alien: Romulus being the ninth entry in the official live-action movie franchise, which includes two crossover films with the Predator franchise. Over the decades, the series has pivoted to the realm of comic books, video games, and action figures, but Alien: Earth marks the first TV series set within the iconic sci-fi world. Not only is it a new medium for Alien, but as the title of the show implies, it also marks the first substantial experience that is set on Earth, which opens the doors for all-new storytelling avenues.

Earlier this month, creator Hawley offered an update on the project, teasing that it will offer longtime fans “something special.”

“We just wrapped,” Hawley revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m in post, editing away. Obviously, there’s a large visual effects component that takes time. But I couldn’t be happier with the show that we shot. If people wanted a television series based on the world of Alien, I think I’m going to give them something special.”   

As far as how long the series could run, Hawley teased, “It could be the next 10 years of my life, for sure.”

Stay tuned for updates on Alien: Earth before it lands on Hulu in 2025.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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It’s a good time to be an Alien fan. Currently, Alen: Romulus is dominating the weekend box office, and is expected to close out its first weekend with $100 million worldwide. The film is faring well with critics and audiences alike, and is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% critics score and 86% audience score. However, the Fede Álvarez film isn’t the only Aliens content fans have to look forward to. Noah Hawley, who is best known for creating the television adaptations of Fargo and Legion, has a new Alien series coming soon to FX called Alien: Earth. A teaser for the show has been playing ahead of Alien: Romulus screenings this weekend, and Hawley recently talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the show and teased it will give fans “something special.”

“We just wrapped,” Hawley said of the series. “I’m in post, editing away. Obviously, there’s a large visual effects component that takes time. But I couldn’t be happier with the show that we shot. If people wanted a television series based on the world of Alien, I think I’m going to give them something special.” 

“It could be the next 10 years of my life, for sure,” he added when asked if the show could go beyond Season One. 

When Does Alien: Earth Take Place?

Series creator Noah Hawley previously teased Alien: Earth would be set on Earth in the future, and LFX CEO John Landgraf previously confirmed that the show takes place about 70 years from now, which would be before Sigourney Waver’s Ripley faced off with the Xenomorph in the original Alien. 

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” Landgraf said. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise.”

“Setting it on Earth is really interesting,” he continued. “We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

Stay tuned for updates about Alien: Earth. Alien: Romulus is currently playing in theaters everywhere.

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Alien: Romulus, but for some fans of the long-running horror franchise, that wasn’t the only Alien content to be enjoyed this weekend. Ahead of some screenings of the new film, there is reportedly a 10-second teaser for Noah Hawley’s upcoming FX series, Alien: Earth. Fans online are reporting that the brief trailer features a xenomorph head with the Earth reflected on its head just before the creature hisses and stares at the screen. There’s then a brief appearance of the title card indicating that Alien: Earth will premiere in 2025.

Alien: Earth is set to serve as a prequel to the original 1979 Alien film from Ridley Scott. There aren’t a ton of details about the series just yet, though Hawley has previously teased that it will be a departure from the standard format of Alien movies and that Alien: Earth is bringing the threat of the xenomorph to our home planet.

“Look, a two-hour movie, you can set it up and then it’s just about, ‘Are they going to survive?’ But if you’re making a series, ‘Are they going to survive?’, you can’t sustain it. Even if you have 60% of the best action-horror on television, you still have 40% of ‘What are we talking about?'” Hawley explained. “I had some conversations early on with Peter Rice, who used to run all of television at Fox and then the first couple of years at Disney, where it was like, ‘The thing with Alien is, it’s always trapped in a spaceship, trapped in a prison. What if it wasn’t that?'”

“What is this moment on Earth, technology-wise? And where are we? And the question science-fiction always tends to ask is, does humanity deserve to survive? So that seems like a really interesting question to continue to explore,” he added.

Hawley has also been clear about is that his goal is for the series capture the feel of the original films but still give viewers something new.

“We just wrapped production, so now I’m into the long post that gets into visual effects,” Hawley said previously. “It’s a very big show. It’s nice to have some time with it. The first year of anything, you want to feel like you’re not up against the wall in terms of time. I’ve seen four of the eight hours of director cuts and engaged in the process of figuring out, cinematically, what it wants to be. It’s one of my favorite parts of making a show.”

Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, David Rysdahl, Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav, Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille and Adrian Edmondson.

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FX’s Alien TV series now has an official title – Alien: Earth. That title pretty much encapsulates what showrunner Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) first teased about the series, saying it would be a departure from the standard format of Alien movies. The key distinction here is Alien: Earth bringing the xenomorph threat to our home planet. Alien creator Ridley Scott baffled fans with his 2012 prequel Prometheus, which posited the idea that the xenomorphs are a bio-weapon developed by an alien race that also created life on Earth. The Alien vs. Predator movies were the only releases that brought xenomorphs to Earth – but those crossover films have largely been dismissed by fans as lackluster exploitations of both Alien and Predator. 

The main Alien films have almost all been about corporate powers trying to secure the xenomorph lifeform samples – we’ve never seen why or how that lifeform was first identified and coveted. 

Alien: Earth will serve as a prequel to the 1979 original film by Ridley Scott, but its exact story angle and connections are totally unknown at this point – if they exist at all. Hawley has made it clear that like with Fargo, his goal is to capture the sense and feeling of those original Alien (and Aliens) films, while still offering viewers something new. 

“We just wrapped production, so now I’m into the long post that gets into visual effects,” Hawley told Variety. “It’s a very big show. It’s nice to have some time with it. The first year of anything, you want to feel like you’re not up against the wall in terms of time. I’ve seen four of the eight hours of director cuts and engaged in the process of figuring out, cinematically, what it wants to be. It’s one of my favorite parts of making a show.”

FX Networks head John Landgraf added that there’s a lot of enthusiasm behind the project – so much so that it’s being fast-tracked ahead of Hawley’s other big FX series, Fargo (Season 6).

“We’re pretty bullish on Alien: Earth and we’ve told him that assuming, as we hope, Alien: Earth is a returning television series, we want him to focus on at least writing two seasons of it before returning to a possible sixth season of Fargo,” Landgraf explained. 

Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, David Rysdahl, Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav, Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille and Adrian Edmondson.

The iron is also heating up as the Alien franchise will return to theaters in August with Alien: Romulus by director Fede Álvarez. 

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When it comes to reviving beloved properties, some storytellers aim to take core concepts of a franchise and reimagine them in entirely unconventional ways, but with the upcoming Alien TV series from creator Noah Hawley, star Sandra Yi Sencindiver claims fans of the debut entries in the saga will appreciate the experience. Whether this means that the new series will narratively, thematically, or tonally fall more in line with Alien and Aliens as compared to other entries in the saga is yet to be revealed, but given how wildly different some of the subsequent installments are from the source, this update will alleviate fans’ fears.

“I think that especially the fans who love [Ridley Scott’s Alien] and [James Cameron’s Aliens] will be very pleased with the universe and the world-building in this reimagining,” Sencindiver detailed to Variety. “A lot of brilliant people, a lot of very interesting character actors [who are] very dedicated and, of course, Noah Hawley is just a brilliant storyteller.”

She continued, “I can’t say anything more than that, other than it’s been very exciting and interesting to play this character … And I also think it’s a pleasure that nobody has played that character before. That’s also great for me, that I get to set the bar for what this character is. We’ll be pleased — the old fans of the original movies.”

Heading to theaters later this year is Alien: Romulus, an adventure that takes place between the events of Alien and Aliens. The cast and crew of that project have teased that it serves more as a standalone spinoff that takes place at a specific point in time as opposed to being a continuation of established mythology. Hawley’s Alien TV series, on the other hand, has been shrouded in much more secrecy. Given how he managed to take the core concept of the Coen brothers’ Fargo to tell an entirely original story that channeled the spirit of the source material, we can likely expect an experience that picks and chooses what elements from the franchise it incorporates. 

In the earliest entries into the series, audiences largely saw a variety of characters facing off against both the horrifying xenomorph creature but also being wary of the intentions of synthetic characters. As the series continued, other thematic elements started to be incorporated, so it’s possible that Secindiver’s comments could confirm a return to the franchise’s narrative roots.

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

What do you think of the actor’s remarks? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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A new TV series set in the world of Alien is in the works from Noah Hawley, and the show is expected to return to production soon after it was put on hold during the WGA and SAG strikes. Hawley has talked about how the original Alien serves as a big inspiration for the new story. Previously, Alien director Ridley Scott criticized the new series, saying, “It’ll never be as good as the first one.” However, Scott is a producer on the new show, and Hawley revealed in a recent interview with The Business podcast (via The Playlist) that he has talked to Scott about bringing the series to life.

“The thing with Alien is that it’s not just a great monster movie; it’s the story of humanity trapped between its primordial, parasitic past and the A.I. future, and they’re both trying to kill us, so there’s nowhere to go,” Hawley explained. “So it’s really a story of: does humanity deserve to survive? Does humanity’s arrogance in thinking that we’re no longer food, and its arrogance in creating these A.I. beings who we think will do what we tell them, but ultimately might lose their minds- is there a way out?”

“Ridley and I have talked about this and many elements of the show, but I think for me, this perfect lifeform, as it was described in the first film, is the product of millions of years of evolution that created this creature that may have existed for a million years out there in space, and the idea that it was a bio-weapon created half an hour ago is inherently less useful to me,” Hawley continued. “In terms of the mythology and what’s scary about this monster.”

“There’s something about that doesn’t compute for me,” Hawley added about the style Scott used in the more recent Alien films like Prometheus. “I prefer the retrofuturism of the first two films, and so that’s the choice that I’ve made to embrace that. There are no holograms; the convenience of beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me.”

When and Where Does the Alien Series Take Place?

Hawley previously teased the show would be set on Earth in the future, and he recently appeared on a panel at the Austin Film Festival and spoke about the choice to set the series here (via /SlashFlm). 

“Look, a two-hour movie, you can set it up and then it’s just about, ‘Are they going to survive?’ But if you’re making a series, ‘Are they going to survive?’, you can’t sustain it. Even if you have 60% of the best action-horror on television, you still have 40% of ‘What are we talking about?'” Hawley explained. “I had some conversations early on with Peter Rice, who used to run all of television at Fox and then the first couple of years at Disney, where it was like, ‘The thing with Alien is, it’s always trapped in a spaceship, trapped in a prison. What if it wasn’t that?'”

He added of bringing xenomorphs to Earth, “What is this moment on Earth, technology-wise? And where are we? And the question science-fiction always tends to ask is, does humanity deserve to survive? So that seems like a really interesting question to continue to explore.”

Stay tuned for updates about the Alien TV series.

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When a Fargo TV series was announced, audiences were confused as to how showrunner Noah Hawley would honor the source material without merely replicating it, and according to star of Hawley’s upcoming Alien TV series David Rysdahl, audiences can expect the project to similarly find an unconventional way of honoring the spirit of the franchise without merely replicating plot points. The actor pointed out how this will result in something that is both quite different from expectations, but that it will still be an exciting experience. The upcoming Alien TV series isn’t expected to debut until sometime in 2025.

“Noah, in a similar fashion to Fargo, takes the movie and asks, ‘What’s the DNA of this? What’s the world perspective? What themes are we tackling? What was the original intent of this movie? Let me see if I can play with that in a new way,'” Rysdahl explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “So he’s doing a really interesting job of that on Alien, and it’s going to be a very different but very exciting view of what the original movie was.”

These comments from the actor resemble similar remarks made by Hawley himself, which emphasize replicating the overall tone and experience of the franchise as opposed to narrative beats.

“The reality is, when you get right down to it, there are three science fiction brands — there’s Star Trek, Star Wars, and Alien — and they each have a completely unique look. You would never confuse Star Trek for Alien, or Star Wars for Star Trek,” Hawley explained to Collider. “I don’t know that it’s intimidating as much as it is a challenge that is an exciting challenge. When we started Fargo, I felt liberated because I thought, ‘Well, this is such a terrible idea to try to make a show called Fargo that is adjacent to the movie, but it has nothing to do with the movie, that three people will watch and two of them will hate watch it.’ On some level, it felt like I was liberated to give it my all and really go for it. There was no playing it safe.” 

He continued, “Since then, I was gonna make a Star Trek movie, and I have been talking with FX about Alien for many years. I’ve gained confidence in my process and this idea. All I do is go back to Fargo the movie, or Alien the movie, and I think, ‘Well, what did I feel while I was watching it?’ And then, I try to create those feelings in the audience while telling them a completely different story, but it’s not really about, ‘What are the elements from the movie that I need?,’ or ‘They had a car salesman, and I’ll have an insurance salesman.'”

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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The Alien franchise has begun to branch out into television, with a new live-action series in the works for FX. As a new report reveals, a number of new cast members will be joining the show’s unexpected sci-fi story. According to a new report, Babou Ceesay (Guerrilla, Damilola), Jonathan Ajayi (Wonder Woman 1984, Noughts and Crosses), Erana James (Uproar, The Wilds), Lily Newmark (Pin Cushion, Sex Education), Diêm Camille (Washington Black, Alex Rider 3), and Adrian Edmondson (War & Peace, A Spy Among Friends) will join the ensemble cast of Alien. Details about their roles have not been revealed at this time.

What Is the Alien TV Show About?

Alien is described as a prequel to the beloved film series, set roughly 70 years in the future, but years before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. It is the first story in the franchise that takes place on Earth. 

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” FX CEO John Landgraf previously said of the series. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise… Setting it on Earth is really interesting. We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

Who Is in the Cast of the Alien TV Show?

The ensemble cast of the Alien series includes Timothy Olyphant, Sydnee Chandler, Alex Lawther as CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav as Slightly. 

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire back in 2022. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

“Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us…” Hawley added. “As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

What do you think of the new cast members joining the Alien TV series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

h/t: Variety

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When it comes to major sci-fi brands like Star Wars or Star Trek, their decades of stories have seen adventures unfold both in theaters and on the small screen, with each respective brand evoking specific vibes that set themselves apart from one another. The Alien franchise, on the other hand, has only earned theatrical installments, so for Noah Hawley’s upcoming TV series set in that world, fans are curious about how those themes and ideas will translate into long-form storytelling, with the showrunner recently explaining how he aims to capture the tone of the franchise. The Alien TV series is expected to be unleashed in 2025 on FX.

“The reality is, when you get right down to it, there are three science fiction brands — there’s Star Trek, Star Wars, and Alien — and they each have a completely unique look. You would never confuse Star Trek for Alien, or Star Wars for Star Trek,” Hawley explained to Collider. “I don’t know that it’s intimidating as much as it is a challenge that is an exciting challenge. When we started Fargo, I felt liberated because I thought, ‘Well, this is such a terrible idea to try to make a show called Fargo that is adjacent to the movie, but it has nothing to do with the movie, that three people will watch and two of them will hate watch it.’ On some level, it felt like I was liberated to give it my all and really go for it. There was no playing it safe.” 

He continued, “Since then, I was gonna make a Star Trek movie, and I have been talking with FX about Alien for many years. I’ve gained confidence in my process and this idea. All I do is go back to Fargo the movie, or Alien the movie, and I think, ‘Well, what did I feel while I was watching it?’ And then, I try to create those feelings in the audience while telling them a completely different story, but it’s not really about, ‘What are the elements from the movie that I need?,’ or ‘They had a car salesman, and I’ll have an insurance salesman.'”

The showrunner went on to note that, whether it be Fargo or Alien, it isn’t so much about replicating plot points so much as about replicating emotional reactions to the material.

“It’s really about that moment at the end of Fargo where he got the three-cent stamp and she’s gonna have the baby, and you feel this amazing sense of, they’re safe now. It’s that feeling. We need to build to the power of that feeling so that it really lands,” Hawley explained. “And Alien has its own set of feelings, and a sense of dread and discovery. It’s a deeply unsettling movie, but strangely, I look at it almost like Waiting for Godot. You’ve got Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton. It’s about a group of people who are going to a place they don’t know where, to do a thing they don’t know what, for someone they don’t know who. It’s such an existential blue-collar journey. But if you copy it precisely, then just watch the movie. You have to do something with it that’s, on some level, totally different and yet feels similar. As you said, every time you watch Fargo, you’re like, ‘How does it feel the same, but totally different?'”

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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The current landscape of prestige TV series means we don’t always know the difference between a limited series and an ongoing storyline, and while we know we can expect one season of storytelling from Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien program, the showrunner recently addressed how he’s approaching the overall length of the story. The filmmaker compared his approach to the project to his approach to the Marvel series Legion, which ran for three seasons, so while he might not have explicitly claimed the Alien show will have a similar length, he did break down how he and his team conceived of the material.

“There’s definitely a place that I’m going, which I had with Legion, also. I just don’t necessarily know how long it’s gonna take me to get there, and on some level, I don’t want to know too much,” Hawley recalled to Collider. “Once you remove the play and the potential and the imagination, that’s why I’ve stopped outlining anything. First of all, no one ever said, ‘That’s the best outline I ever read.’ And second of all, it’s just a different part of your brain, honestly. It’s a different part of your brain that thinks about story that way versus the part of your brain that is writing the story. What we do is we get the writers in a room and we’ve got the whiteboards and we start big picture.” 

He continued, “We start to write stuff in, like ‘Episode 5, this might happen.’ We get a loose structure to it and a sense of, ‘All right, this is the episode where this needs to happen.’ And then, the writing process allows more discovery and allows the characters to live on the page in a way that doesn’t stifle the creativity. That said, in order to make things feel random and have coincidence and those real-life elements that we have, you do have to plan that pretty profoundly, but within that, I like to leave room to discover.”

In this regard, it doesn’t sound like the project will embrace an anthology premise like Hawley’s Fargo, which has allowed multiple disconnected stories to be told in that world. With the project likely to have a relatively large budget, due to its sci-fi themes, the length of the series will likely be dependent upon how popular it is and whether FX opts to pursue the costly endeavor.

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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Is Noah Hawley’s Alien TV series just Fargo with Xenomorphs? After adding Timothy Olyphant, who appeared on season 4 of the anthology series, FX’s Alien has cast another Fargo star in an undisclosed role: David Rysdahl. The Oppenheimer and No Exit actor joins a cast that includes Sydney Chandler (Don’t Worry Darling) as Wendy, a meta-human; Alex Lawther (Star Wars: Andor) as CJ, a soldier; Samuel Blenkin (The Sandman) as Boy Kavalier, a CEO; and Essie Davis (Game of Thrones) as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly, and Kit Young (Shadow and Bone) as Tootles. Deadline first reported the news.

Details about Rysdahl’s character are under wraps. It was reported that Olyphant is playing a “major” role as Kirsh, described as “a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer” for Chandler’s Wendy, “a hybrid meta-human who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult.”

Little is known about the Alien prequel executive produced by Ridley Scott except that it’s set on Earth decades before the Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) era of Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.

“Alien takes place before Ripley,” FX chief John Landgraf said during the 2022 Television Critics Association press tour. “It’s the first story in the Alienfranchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, nearthe end of this century we’re currently in — 70-odd years from now. All I can tell you is Ripley won’t be a part of it, and neither willany other characters — other than the alien itself.”

Landgraf added that Hawley, who created FX’s Fargo series now in its fifth season, “hasan incredible ability to both find a way of being faithful and showingfidelity to an original creation, like to the Coen brothers [with Fargo] or to Ridley Scott’s [Alien] movie and James Cameron’s follow-up Aliens, butalso to bring something new that represents both an extension andreinvention of a franchise at the same time. He’s done a masterful jobwith Alien as he did with Fargo. There are some big surprises in store for the audience.”

Though decades removed from the original 1979 Alien and Scott’s semi-prequel/spinoff Prometheus and its sequel Alien: Covenant, Hawley’s Alien series is what Landgraf hopes fans embrace as “faithfulto the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention ofthat franchise.”

“Setting it on Earth is reallyinteresting,” Landgraf added. “We have to think forward about the future of the planet interms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design aversion of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in adistinctive and original way.”

Alien does not yet have a premiere date on FX on Hulu.

The post Alien Prequel Series Adds Fargo Star David Rysdahl to Cast appeared first on ComicBook.com.

After Disney+’s The Mandalorian and FX’s Justified, Timothy Olyphant is headed to another major television series. On Monday, it was reported that Olyphant has joined the cast of the upcoming Alien television series, which is in the works for FX. This will be the latest collaboration between Olyphant and Alien showrunner Noah Hawley, after he appeared in Season 4 of FX’s Fargo.

It is not confirmed what role Olyphant will be playing, although reports hint that he could be playing Kirsh, a synth who is the mentor and trainer for Wendy (Sydney Chandler).

What Is the Alien TV Show About?

Alien is described as a prequel to the beloved film series, set roughly 70 years in the future, but years before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. It is the first story in the franchise that takes place on Earth. 

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” FX CEO John Landgraf previously said of the series. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise… Setting it on Earth is really interesting. We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

Who Is in the Cast of the Alien TV Show?

The ensemble cast of the Alien series includes Chandler, Alex Lawther as CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav as Slightly. 

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire back in 2022. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

“Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us…” Hawley added. “As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

What do you think of Timothy Olyphant joining the Alien TV series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

h/t: Deadline

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Now that the WGA and SAG strikes are over, many television shows and movies are heading back into production. One such series is a new show set in the world of Alien. The series was created by Noah Hawley, who is best known for creating the television adaptations of Fargo and Legion. According to Deadline, the show is expected to resume production at the start of 2024.

“We’re getting back into production as quickly as possible,” Hawley shared, adding that they’re hoping to get back to filming in January or February. “We’re shooting in Bangkok, a half a world away; shooting again in the New Year … I got some footage. Some of the first hour was shot before we had to shut down. It’s stuff to play with and edit,” he added. “I’m excited to get back in there.”

When and Where Does the Alien Series Take Place?

Hawley previously teased the show would be set on Earth in the future, and he recently appeared on a panel at the Austin Film Festival and spoke about the choice to set the series here (via /SlashFlm). 

“Look, a two-hour movie, you can set it up and then it’s just about, ‘Are they going to survive?’ But if you’re making a series, ‘Are they going to survive?’, you can’t sustain it. Even if you have 60% of the best action-horror on television, you still have 40% of ‘What are we talking about?'” Hawley explained. “I had some conversations early on with Peter Rice, who used to run all of television at Fox and then the first couple of years at Disney, where it was like, ‘The thing with Alien is, it’s always trapped in a spaceship, trapped in a prison. What if it wasn’t that?'”

He added of bringing xenomorphs to Earth, “What is this moment on Earth, technology-wise? And where are we? And the question science-fiction always tends to ask is, does humanity deserve to survive? So that seems like a really interesting question to continue to explore.”

Last year, FX CEO John Landgraf confirmed that the series takes place about 70 years from now, before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” Landgraf said. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise.”

“Setting it on Earth is really interesting,” he continued. “We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

Stay tuned for updates about the Alien TV series.

The post Alien Series From Noah Hawley to Restart Filming for FX Very Soon appeared first on ComicBook.com.

More than 40 years after Ridley Scott’s Alien was unleashed in theaters, the franchise is set to expand into uncharted territory with a TV series from Noah Hawley, but fans shouldn’t expect to witness the series anytime soon, as Hawley offered an update that it might not debut until 2025. The delays are due to this year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, and while the writers’ strike has been resolved, it’s entirely unknown when the actors’ strike will be resolved, with it being possible that production is delayed even further. Luckily, a new Alien film has already wrapped production and is expected to debut in 2024 to hold audiences over.

“We’re all just waiting for the strike, and it will end,” Hawley shared with TheWrap. “The plan right now is to go back in January and be shooting in February, and looks like shoot until July or so, which puts the air date somewhere in the first half of ’25.”

Production on the TV series was set to kick off back in 2022, though the coronavirus pandemic delayed those plans, with shooting ultimately starting this past July. The shoot was able to continue longer than other productions despite the strike, as it was only impacting SAG-AFTRA members, allowing British cast members to continue shooting.

“I was able to complete filming most of the first hour. That said, I wasn’t able to film anything with my star [SAG-AFTRA member Sydney Chandler]. So I still have the bulk of the show to film, and we have seven more hours to shoot,” Hawley admitted. “I certainly would have loved to get the show in front of people as quickly as possible.”

Since the inception of the franchise, Alien has largely focused on various intergalactic researchers encountering incarnations of the monstrous xenomorph, though as proven with Fargo, Hawley has managed to reimagine source material yet honor its spirit.

“It’s very exciting that I get this opportunity, with films like Fargo or Alien, to live within the world that was created by these directors and storytellers. It raises the hair on the back of your neck in a good way to walk onto a set where you feel like you’re on the Nostromo,” the filmmaker shared. “You’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m in the movie.'” 

The new Alien movie, rumored to be titled Alien: Romulus, comes from Fede Álvarez and has an August 16, 2024 release date. Stay tuned for updates on the Alien franchise.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

The post Alien TV Series Likely Won’t Air Until 2025 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Alien movie franchise will continue into a new installment: Aliens: Bishop, a novel that will serve as a  direct sequel to both Aliens and Alien 3. Written by author T.R. Napper, Aliens: Bishop will continue the story arc of Bishop, the synthetic lifeform that accompanied Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Colonial Marines on the rescue mission to exomoon LV-426 and the terraforming colony that was decimated by the Xenomorphs. 

(SPOILERS) In the climatic act of Aliens, Bishop was horrifically dismembered by the Xenomorph queen, which had snuck aboard their spaceship. The synthetic character was brought back for the infamous Alien 3, in a pivotal scene where Ripley brings him back online in order to confirm her suspicions that a Xenomorph Facegrabber had snuck aboard their ship, and infected Ripley herself. After giving up all his intel, Bishop asked Ripley to let him be taken offline for good – a request she honored. 

However, Aliens: Bishop will throw the twist into that ending, by having Bishop’s creator bring him back online, to serve as one of the foremost sources on the Xenomorphs. You can check out the full synopsis for Aliens: Bishop, below: 

Massively damaged in Aliens and Alien3, the synthetic Bishop asked to be shut down forever. His creator, Michael Bishop, has other plans. He seeks the Xenomorph knowledge stored in the android’s mind, and brings Bishop back to life—but for what reason? No longer an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Michael tells his creation that he seeks to advance medical research for the benefit of humanity. Yet where does he get the resources needed to advance his work. With whom do his new allegiances lie?

Bishop is pursued by Colonial Marines Captain Marcel Apone, commander of the Il Conde and younger brother of Master Sergeant Alexander Apone, one of the casualties of the doomed mission to LV-426. Also on his trail are the “Dog Catchers,” commandos employed by Weyland-Yutani.

Who else might benefit from Bishop’s intimate knowledge of the deadliest creatures in the galaxy?

A direct sequel to Aliens and Alien 3—Weyland-Yutani, the Colonial Marines, and Bishop’s creator all pursue the android for the deadly Xenomorph data contained in his brain. Written by T. R. Napper, author of the acclaimed 36 Streets, whose explosive work explores the artificial intelligence and what it is to be human.

The Alien franchise has continued on through the Marvel Comics anthology series, while Ridley Scott explained the franchise’s origins in his two prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. On deck are a new Alien movie that Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead 2013, Don’t Breathe) directed, as well as a somewhat controversial Alien TV series from Fargo’s Noah Hawley. 

Aliens: Bishop is available for digital download and will be available in Hardcover starting on December 12th. You can pre-order it HERE. 

The post Aliens: Bishop to Be Direct Sequel to Aliens and Alien 3 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

FX’s upcoming Alien television series has now fully shut down production, amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. On Monday, a report revealed that the series has suspended its production in Thailand, with the ensemble cast of the series being sent home last Friday. The pause in production was reportedly planned, with the crew reportedly continuing to work and prepare the series’ sets, so that filming can begin as soon as possible after the strike ends. It had previously been reported that Alien would be able to continue production amid the strike, as it has a largely international ensemble and only two of its main cast members are members of SAG-AFTRA. As a result, Alien was able to continue filming for at least the past month with non-SAG-AFTRA members. Additionally, the report reveals that Shadow and Bone star Kit Young has been cast in Alien as a character named Tootles. 

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” FX CEO John Landgraf previously said of the series. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise… Setting it on Earth is really interesting. We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

What Is the Alien TV Show About?

Alien is described as a prequel to the beloved film series, under the helm of Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley. The ensemble cast of the Alien series includes Sydney Chandler in an unknown role, Alex Lawther as CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav as Slightly. 

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire back in 2022. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

“Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us…” Hawley added. “As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

What do you think of the latest update regarding the Alien TV series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

h/t: Deadline

The post FX’s Alien Series Suspends Production Amid SAG-AFTRA Strike appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The highly anticipated Alien TV series from Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley is officially kicking off production in Thailand this week. Most TV and film productions have shut down due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, but FX’s Alien is moving forward by filming without any of its actors who are part of SAG here in the United States. Actors that are part of other unions around the world can take part in productions, including those in the UK’s acting union, Equity.

With that in mind, Alien has cast a couple of actors from the UK in lead roles, two of which previously appeared in Netflix’s Black Mirror. According to Deadline, Alex Lawther and Samuel Blenkin have joined the cast of the Alien series as main characters. Lawther, who also starred in Netflix’s The End of the F*cking World, is playing a soldier named CJ, the show’s male lead. Blenkin is playing a CEO named Boy Kavalier, another main character. The new cast members also include Essie David and Adarsh Gourav.

Prior to the start of production this week, only one cast member for the Alien series had been revealed. Sydney Chandler is starring in the series as one of its leads, but Chandler is a member of SAG-AFTRA. The Don’t Worry, Darling actress is not currently a part of the production due to the strike.

When Does the Alien TV Series Take Place?

The new Alien series is actually a prequel to the first movie, taking place in the decades before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley fought the extraterrestrials. It’s set about 70 years from now.

Hawley’s Alien story is also the first entry in the franchise to set its story on planet Earth, rather than on a ship or far-away planet.

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” FX CEO John Landgraf said. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise.”

“Setting it on Earth is really interesting,” he continued. “We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

The post Alien Series Adds Two Black Mirror Stars to Cast appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The writers’ strike has already been impacting all corners of Hollywood for months, but with an actors’ strike now officially happening, even more productions will be facing complications. One of the more anticipated projects on the horizon is a TV series set in the world of Alien from Noah Hawley, but a new report from Variety claims that the international nature of the project means only two main figures are part of SAG-AFTRA, so the series will aim to shoot around them for the foreseeable future. Given how long it has been since the writers’ strike started and how it hasn’t made substantial progress towards being resolved, the actors’ strike will likely follow suit, making it entirely unknown when either strike will be resolved and productions will be able to resume.

The outlet points out that the series is currently in pre-production in Thailand and that the cast of the series is comprised of a mix of SAG-AFTRA and Equity members, including potentially two lead stars, but that the sprawling nature of the series could allow elements to be filmed without those figures. Given that a number of other movies and TV shows have shut down entirely, being able to film anything for the series is still an advantage other projects don’t have.

The Alien TV series was announced back in 2020, with the franchise being one of the exciting brands that The Walt Disney Company secured in their acquisition of 20th Century Fox. In addition to this TV series, a new film is also in the works, which recently wrapped production.

Hawley previously teased what would set his new TV series apart from events that have happened on the big screen.

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire back in 2022. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

He added, “Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us … As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

Are you looking forward to the project? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.

The post FX’s Alien TV Series Will Reportedly Film Without SAG Members appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Aliens and Predators have been at war for quite some time. While the franchise did receive two films, there have been countless comics, novels, and merchandise that his pit the xenomorphs against the technologically advanced hunters. While there has never been an anime that sees these two properties going head-to-head, you might be surprised to learn that not only was an animated series approved, but it was finished and remains unseen by fans to this day. 

Former Fox Executive, Joshua Izzo, recently took the opportunity to chat with podcast Perfect Organism, revealing the shocking info that not only had an Alien Vs Predator animated series been approved, but it was also finished and simply hasn’t been released to the public as of yet. Here’s how Izzo described when the project was originally going to be released, and just how long it has been trapped inside a vault:

“This was going to be initially released on Alien Day in 2016. That was the plan. Now what happened was, as we were going forward Ridley came back to Fox and said “I want to make another alien movie.” This was going to be Covenant. And Shane came and said “I want to make a Predator movie” which was going to be The Predator. AvP as a brand was something that was frowned upon at the time at Fox because those movies underperformed but meanwhile the intellectual property…just those words put together – Alien versus Predator –  from a consumer products and a publishing perspective still worked.”

While not confirmed, Izzo hinted at the director of the project, who very well might have been Shinji Aramaki. Aramaki, for those who might be unfamiliar with his work, helped produce Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Applessed, Ultraman, and Harlock: Space Pirate to name a few. Izzo then took the opportunity to break down some of the Predators that appeared in the unreleased animated series, “One of the Predators is a cyborg and has a fully cybernetic arm and a cybernetic mandible. It’s super rad. One we called Bone because all of his weapons were made out of giant tusks. He was so cool.”

Izzo went on to describe that there was a vast amount of work that was being done outside of 20th Century Studios originally when it came to the animated series. Companies such as NECA, Titan, and Dark Horse Comics were all working on different projects related to the animated series, “I had deals signed. NECA was developing, Titan was working on an art book and a novel. Dark Horse was working on a comic book series. Those were all in process. Somewhere in the world, there is stuff that was being done. Someone has pictures. Anywho, so that kind of that was going to be one of the big driving forces behind Alien Day 2016.”

Do you think we’ll ever see this Alien Vs Predator anime? Which project for either Alien or Predator are you most looking forward to in the future? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of these alien nightmares. 

Via Perfect Organism

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The world of Alien is coming to the small screen, thanks to Fargo‘s Noah Hawley, and the franchise’s foray into prestige TV has finally landed one of its leads. Hawley’s Alien series, which is in the works over at FX, will be a reinvention of the film franchise, rather than a continuation or total reboot. As the series gears up for production, casting has finally begun, and Sydney Chandler has nabbed the first major role.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chandler has landed one of the lead roles in the new Alien TV show. There is no information regarding who she is playing, as plot details are being kept under wraps. Chandler is best known for roles in Pistol and Don’t Worry Darling.

When Does the Alien Series Take Place?

There are no firm details out there regarding the Alien series, other than the fact that it is set on Earth, the first title in the Alien franchise to take place on our planet. Last year, FX CEO John Landgraf confirmed that the series takes place about 70 years from now — before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

“It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in – 70-odd years from now,” Landgraf said. “I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise.”

“Setting it on Earth is really interesting,” he continued. “We have to think forward about the future of the planet in terms of the environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future … Noah wants to do that in a distinctive and original way.”

Work on the Alien series will kick into high gear when Hawley finishes up with Fargo Season 5. There is currently no expected release date for the highly anticipated project.

Are you looking forward to seeing what Noah Hawley and FX do with Alien on TV? Let us know in the comments!

The post Alien: FX Casts Sydney Chandler to Star in Noah Hawley’s New Revival Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Alien franchise’s core themes have always been creation and evolution – and the nightmarish ways they can go wrong. In every Alien movie there have been two main ways that humans have faced the terorror of creation: the nightmarish Xenomorph aliens, which can evolve to mimic the traits of any lifeform they infect, and “Synthetics,” i.e., android lifeforms disguised as humans, who have been as much a threat in Alien lore as the Xenomorphs themselves. 

Well, the latest chapter in the Alien saga ends with a startling reveal: the threats of Xenomorphs and Androids finally coming together in one hybrid lifeform that spells doom for humanity! 

WARNING: Alien (2022) SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

In Marvel’s Alien (20222) limited series, writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Julius Ohta introduced a thrilling new story: a special-ops squad of synthetic warriors (“Steel Team”) was brought out of retirement for a crucial mission in the year 2217 (nearly one-hundred years after the original film). Steel Team was sent to the plantery settlement of Tobler-9 that was decimated by the Xenomorphs, in order to recover a Xenomorph egg that Weyland-Yutani scientists experimented on, which can ensure humanity’s survival. The androids were incredibly reluctant to do anything involving them with humankind again, but they went. Not surprisingly, things quickly went sideways. 

The surviving human settlers on Tobler-9 betrayed Steel Team, but when the Weyland research material got loose, one of the human settlement leaders, Lee, was infected and transformed into what looks to be the first true Xenomorph-human hybrid creature, with the body and intelligence of a human, but the enhanced physiology and ferociousness of a Xenomorph, and the ability to commune with the creatures and lead them.  There was a lot of speculation within the Alien fanbase that THE big plot-twist in the “Icarus” story arc would be having this human-Xenomorph creature be revealed, and pave the way for a new kind of Alien queen. The cover of Alien (2022) #6 certainly seemed to suggest as much… However, “Icarus” was always a story that put synthetics in the spotlight, so it’s only fitting that the conclusion of the story has to do with that, as well. 

The details are murky after the fact, but the inference is that the genetic tampering with Xenomorph DNA and eggs opened the door to the lifeform being more resiliant and versatile than ever. Lee’s transformation goes to the point of revealing a synthetic body beneath her human/Xenomporph form – a queen that is part ogranic monster, and part unstoppable macine. If this hybrid can also birth more Xenomorphs, it truly is the darkest nightmare of a creation we could imagine. The story ends by reveling the new queen and her “children” in stasis, waiting for the day they awaken to threaten the entire galaxy. 

Marvel’s Alien comics work in an anthology format, wherein each year a new limited series is rolled out, telling a new standalone story. That’s all to say: Johnson’s reveal of a Xenomorph-Android hybrid isn’t the beginning of a new chapter for the franchise; in fact, a voiceover from Weyland’s prototype android David (seen in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant) hammers it home that this is just a dark convergence of the two ways humankind has constantly tried to destroy itself in the Alien series: through monsters, and machines. 

Like everything in these various Alien comic storylines, fans are hoping that the testing ground of the comics will later be mined for ideas that upcoming next wave of Alien movies and TV shows could be made from. 

Alien (2022) #6
Published: February 08, 2023
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Penciler: Julius Ohta
Cover Artist: Bjorn Barends

DEATH IS INEVITABLE! Steel Team is in fragments. Scores of innocent humans are dead after surviving years on an irradiated rock. A new kind of Xenomorph is emerging…hunting…killing. It’s all built to this. Is this the end – or beginning – of a new horror?

Alien (2022) is on sale from Marvel Comics. 

The post Alien Reveals The Creation of the First Xenomorph-Android Hybrid appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Alien franchise is set to be revived with a new TV series set in the world of the sci-fi experience that kicked off in 1979, with FX executive John Landgraf teasing that the series is in active preproduction and will begin shooting once Noah Hawley wraps up the new season of Fargo. At this rate, if the series heads into production this year, we can likely expect it to premiere sometime in 2024. While the series is sure to take place in a futuristic world, audiences have still been wondering exactly how the franchise will be adapted into a TV series, especially given Hawley’s approach to translating the cinematic legacy of Fargo into a long-running TV show.

At a Television Critics Association event, per writer Randee Dawn on Twitter, FX’s John Landgraf provided an “update on Alien series: Active preproduction on show is underway w/ Noah Hawley’s scripts & will go into production after season 5 of Fargo.“

In the original film, which is set in 2122, the crew of the Nostromo comes across an otherworldly egg, which hatches and unleashes a deadly creature on board. The creature evolves into the horrifying xenomorph, which sticks to the shadows as it horrifically picks off members of the crew one at a time. Subsequent films continued the terror of these monsters, along with exploring the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Hawley previously recalled how his series will seemingly bridge the gap between the real world and the ambitious elements of the film franchise.

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire back in 2022. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

He added, “Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us … As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

Stay tuned for details on the Alien TV  series.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.

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In Prometheus, acclaimed actor Guy Pearce took on the role of Peter Weyland. Decrepit and hoping to extend his lifespan, he snuck on board the Prometheus, but ultimately suffered a fatal sound at the hands of the Engineers. With a production start date coming soon, it’s tempting to wonder whether Pearce might be tapped to reprise the role of Peter Weyland (or at least a hologram of him) in the forthcoming Alien TV series from Legion showrunner Noah Hawley. Originally developed under Ridley Scott, the project was briefly thought dead when he announced he was moving on from it. Instead, a new generation of talent will apparently tackle a previously-unexplored portion of the Alien universe’s history.

Well, luckily enough, Pearce has a new thriller out for Paramount. And while speaking with ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian on behalf of The Infernal Machine, he addressed the possibility.

“Well, I think if anything, it would be a hologram,” Pearce said. “I’ve not been asked about that, and I am looking more and more like the version of Peter Weyland who we saw in Prometheus, so there’s less prosthetic work to be done than the five hours we had to do back in 2011. It’s been ten years now.”

FX chief John Landgraf said during his presentation to the Television Critics Association in August that the upcoming TV series set in the world of the Alien film franchise will start filming soon. The series marks the first time the Alien franchise heads to Earth, and the first TV adaptation for the long-running property, which has thus far spanned six movies (including two crossovers with Predator) as well as numerous video games, novels, and comics since its debut in 1979. The as-yet-untitled TV series will reportedly try to thread the needle between the horror of the Ridley Scott original and the high-octane action of James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens.

The series will take place before Ripley comes on the scene, and will reportedly not include any existing characters from the film franchise. No word yet on exact plot details or casting information.

“On some level it’s also a story about inequality,” showrunner Noah Hawley previously said. “You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world. The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.”

The Alien series will follow the release of Prey and Hellraiser as an attempt at revitalizing a flagging horror franchise in recent months. Prey, a Hulu-based prequel to Alien‘s former Fox stablemate The Predator, drew enthusiastic reviews for its depiction of a group of indigenous Americans squaring off with an alien hundreds of years in the past. The projects have also provided an early look into how Disney will deal with Fox’s portfolion of IP, not all of which is as family-friendly as the Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel projects that dominate much of the Disney+ streaming platform.

Ridley Scott will produce the Alien series through his Scott Free banner. The show is shooting for a 2023 premiere.

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FX chief John Landgraf said during his presentation to the Television Critics Association that the upcoming TV series set in the world of the Alien film franchise will start filming soon. The series marks the first time the Alien franchise heads to Earth, and the first TV adaptation for the long-running property, which has thus far spanned six movies (including two crossovers with Predator) as well as numerous video games, novels, and comics since its debut in 1979. The as-yet-untitled TV series will reportedly try to thread the needle between the horror of the Ridley Scott original and the high-octane action of James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens.

A return to form for the franchise could be a boon to the series. While the recent prequel movies Prometheus and Alien: Covenant have their supporters, it has been a long time since fans were unified in their enthusiasm for an Alien movie.

The series will take place before Ripley comes on the scene, and will reportedly not include any existing characters from the film franchise. No word yet on exact plot details or casting information.

“On some level it’s also a story about inequality,” showrunner Noah Hawley previously said. “You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world. The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.”

The Alien series will follow the release of Prey, a Hulu-based prequel to Alien‘s former Fox stablemate The Predator, which has been drawing enthusiastic reviews so far for its depiction of a group of indigenous Americans squaring off with an alien hundreds of years in the past. The projects have been an early look into how Disney will deal with Fox’s portfolion of IP, not all of which is as family-friendly as the Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel projects that dominate much of the Disney+ streaming platform.

Ridley Scott will produce the Alien series through his Scott Free banner. The show is shooting for a 2023 premiere.

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With a new TV series set within the world of Alien on the way for FX, fans have been curious about how the concept will tie into the overall mythology of the franchise, with an FX exec recently offering some updates on the concept. John Landgraf detailed, per Deadline, that the new series will be taking place roughly at the end of the 21st century, which is also roughly around the time that Ellen Ripley was born. In this regard, it also means we won’t be seeing Sigourney Weaver reprising her role from the film franchise in the upcoming adventure.

“There are some big surprises in store for the audience,” Landgraf shared at the network’s TCA appearance. “Alien takes place before Ripley. It’s the first story that takes place in the Alien franchise on Earth. So, it takes place on our planet. Right near the end of this century we’re in — so 70-odd years from now.”

He added, “Ripley won’t be a part of it or any of the other characters of Alien other than the alien itself.”

While this update will surely disappoint some audiences, it will likely excite others, as it means the project will seemingly be exploring uncharted territory. 

The exec might be accurate in noting that this is the first project in the proper Alien franchise to take place on Earth, though both Alien vs. Predator films have taken place on our planet, so it won’t be the first time a xenomorph will be seen on Earth. What might complicate matters, however, is that when the creature appears in the original Alien, it is seemingly the first time humans encountered the creature, so if this new series is to heavily explore the nature of the beast, it could cause some complications for the overall narrative of the franchise and what humans really knew about the creature.

With Noah Hawley at the helm, having previously delivered the FX series Fargo and Legion, we surely can’t rule out the new series taking some ambitious and unexpected creative liberties with the property.

“Noah has this incredible ability, and I think you’ve seen it with Fargo, to both find a way of being faithful, showing fidelity to an original creation like a Coen brothers’ movie, or in this case, Ridley Scott’s and James Cameron’s follow-up, Aliens, but also to bring something new to the table that represents extension and reinvention of a franchise at the same time,” Landgraf expressed.

Stay tuned for details on the Alien TV series, which isn’t expected to start shooting until next year.

Are you excited by these details? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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Fans have been waiting for a new installment in the Alien franchise since 2017’s Alien: Covenant, with the next chapter set to be an all-new TV series from Noah Hawley. While it’s unknown exactly when that series is expected to debut, a new report from Alien vs. Predator Galaxy claims that Weta has come on board the project to deliver the visual effects for the iconic xenomorph. The site notes that, while they are confident that Weta is involved in the endeavor, the effects house is comprised of both Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, with one branch handling visual effects and the other branch handling practical effects. In other words, it’s currently unknown what the blend of practical and visual effects fans can expect.

Back in the early 2000s, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy put Weta on the map, as they crafted the astonishing mix of both practical and digital effects for that trilogy. Following their successful work on that project, Weta would go on to develop effects for King Kong, District 9, Avatar, and Marvel’s The Avengers. Weta also contributed effects to the Alien prequel film Prometheus.

Understandably, the Alien franchise is known for its inclusion of the xenomorph, though the most recent entries saw themes of artificial intelligence and corporate greed earn a heavier influence than merely games of cat and mouse between the otherworldly threats and human protagonists. Knowing that Weta is involved in this new series will likely excite fans, as Hawley surely wouldn’t have enlisted their talents for a series that would focus solely on human characters.

Earlier this month, Hawley teased what he hoped to explore with the new series.

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

He added, “Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us … As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

Stay tuned for details on the Alien TV series. 

Are you looking forward to the project? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.

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When most people think of the Alien franchise, they typically think of the terrifying xenomorph wreaking all sorts of intergalactic terror, but there are other sci-fi concepts that have been explored in the decades since the franchise debuted, with showrunner on the upcoming Alien TV series Noah Hawley weighing in on the themes his narrative will explore. Rather than merely focusing on a variety of spaceship crews being terrorized by the creatures throughout space, he aims to tackle the ways in which humans prove themselves to be much more ruthless threats than the towering beasts. The Alien TV series is expected to debut on FX though it does not yet have a release date.

“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla,” Hawley explained to Esquire. “Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

He added, “Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us … As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. 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 it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”

Of course, finding that balance is easier said than done, as one of the big struggles of the series in recent years has been finding the appropriate balance of themes. For example, 2011’s Prometheus leaned more heavily into the themes of corporate greed and artificial intelligence than a cat-and-mouse game between humans and xenomorphs, which frustrated many audiences. The follow-up, Alien: Covenant, leaned more heavily into straightforward horror, though that film also failed to resonate with audiences.

Regardless of the specificities of the narrative, seeing the first long-form live-action story for the franchise will surely have Alien fans excited for what Hawley is cooking up.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.

The post Alien Showrunner Offers Update on Series, Details Experience as “Humbling” appeared first on ComicBook.com.

With the last two films in the Alien franchise, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, earning mixed reactions from fans and critics, the series is now pivoting into long-form storytelling with a TV series on FX, with franchise creator Ridley Scott recently teasing that the debut season is expected to run 8-10 hours. This length lines up with most other prestige TV series that have been released in recent years, and with the project aiming to debut on a network with commercial breaks, this length could result in a series lasting anything between 10 and 13 episodes, though that number will likely be solidified as it is further developed.

Variety recently noted that, in conversation with the BBC, Scott expressed, “A pilot is being written along with a bible of what transpires in 8-10 hours of the show.”

What’s interesting about Scott’s comments is that he previously expressed his disinterest in the upcoming endeavor from showrunner Noah Hawley.

“It’ll never be as good as the first one,” Scott shared with The Independent just last month when talking about the TV series. “That’s what I’ll say.”

Having directed the first film in the franchise, Scott is understandably looked to as an authority on what makes the franchise work, yet with him having directed the last two installments, faith in the filmmaker has wavered among the fandom. While he had previously confirmed he had plans for another film set between Covenant and the original Alien, the underwhelming reaction to theatrical outings, in conjunction with The Walt Disney Company acquiring 20th Century Fox, has seen the mythology pivot to this new TV series.

As for the premise of the new project, FX exec Jon Landgraf previously teased that the project will be “the first Alien story set on Earth — and by blending both the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second, it’s going to be a scary thrill ride that will blow people back in their seats.”

While these comments aren’t entirely true, as the events of both Alien vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem took place on Earth, it would be the first entry into the proper Alien series set on Earth that wasn’t a crossover event.

Stay tuned for details on the new Alien TV series.

Are you looking forward to the new project? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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Most genre fans would argue that Ridley Scott’s Alien set the standard of what could be accomplished in the realm of science fiction and horror, with a variety of follow-up adventures and tributes to that seminal film having emerged over the past 40 years, but when it comes to the upcoming Alien TV series from Noah Hawley, Scott himself claims that, no matter how good it might be, it won’t match the achievements of his film. Understandably, many would argue that ever Scott’s own return to the franchise failed to come close to that original film’s successes, confirming just how singular that debut film remains.

“It’ll never be as good as the first one,” Scott shared with The Independent recently when talking about the TV series. “That’s what I’ll say.”

The status of the Alien franchise has undergone a lot of changes in recent years, some of which were promising and others which were disappointing. Despite the excitement over Scott’s return to the series with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, both films earned mixed reactions from critics and underwhelming financial returns. Despite Scott claiming he had other ideas for films that would bridge the gap between Covenant and Alien, his other films’ disappointments make those plans seem unlikely of being realized.

Similarly, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp had mentioned on multiple occasions that he was developing a new film for the series that would see Sigourney Weaver’s return as Ellen Ripley, only for conflicting reports to emerge about the legitimacy of those plans, with Blomkamp since having confirmed that project was definitively dead.

Adding even more complications to the mix was The Walt Disney Company’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, which meant the Alien franchise was now being designed by a relatively family-friendly studio, despite most storylines in the series being R-rated. 

One of the last updates about the project came earlier this year from 

“I think it was very conscious the fact that there’s a cinematic universe, and that while it has some flexibility, that the aesthetic that was established by Ridley Scott and continued by James Cameron is a part of that universe,” FX Networks president John Landgraf shared earlier this summer. “I think you’ll see some inventiveness and some originality that is uniquely Noah.”

Stay tuned for details on the Alien TV series.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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FX’s Alien TV series from Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has been shrouded in mystery, but now we may be getting a little glimpse of some story details. During FX’s TCA presentation, FX Networks president John Landgraf gave an update on Hawley’s Alien series. He described the Alien TV series as being “very grounded,” while also indicating that it will arrive in 2023. Landgraf also made sure to iterate that this Alien TV show will stay connected to the cinematic universe established by Ridley Scott and James Cameron, and that “Scott Free and Ridley are involved in this as producers.”

John Landgraf was just as quick to make sure that he established that the FX Alien series will be a fitting balance of the established franchise and Noah Hawley’s unique and quirk vision of genre franchises:

“I think it was very conscious the fact that there’s a cinematic universe, and that while it has some flexibility, that the aesthetic that was established by Ridley Scott and continued by James Cameron is a part of that universe.” That said, Landgraf notes “I think you’ll see some inventiveness and some originality that is uniquely Noah.”

Earlier this year, Noah Hawley did his own interview with Vanity Fair in which he revealed a few details about his concept for this FX Aliens TV series. The Scott/Cameron influence won’t require Hawley to tell another Ripley story – and he’s definitely found a ‘Hawley-esque’ spin for the alien Xenomorphs the series is built around:

“The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship,” Hawley explained. “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.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has left people primed to have their fears of outbreak stoked by the horror genre, and it sounds like Alien will do just that. The other thing the pandemic highlighted was the deep social inequalities that currently exist – inequality that Hawley wants to explore using Xenomorphs and mayhem:

“On some level it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world,” Hawley said. “The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.

In mine, you’re also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.'”

Not surprising that we didn’t get that explanation from the FX Network president…

FX’s Alien TV series will supposedly arrive in 2023.

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The Alien franchise TV series that FX is developing with Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) will not be another story about Ellen Ripley. Instead, Hawley is interested in exploring a story of class warfare, in which the dreaded xenomorphs finally get to terrorize a new crowd: the wealthy elite and business executives who are always responsible for sending working-class people (engineers, colonists, military servicemen and women, prisoners, etc.) to their doom in one xenomorph calamity or another. That’s a nice twist on the Alien franchise we’ve seen on-screen up until this point, and a great way for Hawley to marry his stylistic and philosophic auteur signature to the sci-fi/horror genre.

Here’s what Noah Hawley told Vanity Fair about his approach to the Alien TV series, and its story premise.

“It’s not a Ripley story. 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. It’s a story that’s set on Earth also,” Hawley explained.

The Alien films have always been about (ultimately successfully) containing xenomorph outbreaks in remote locations; in the post-pandemic world, however, Hawley is more interested in looking at what unchecked outbreak is all about.

“The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship,” the filmmaker detailed. “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.”

Of course, most of Hawley’s TV work has dealt with the theme of the downtrodden rising up against oppressive forces — often in a violent manner. His Alien TV series will be no different.

“On some level it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world,” Hawley confirmed. “The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.”

He added, “In mine, you’re also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.'”

There’s no premiere date for FX’s Alien series.

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