Alien TV Series Gets New Details, Will Feature “Big Surprises”

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Image: 20th Century Studios

New details on FX’s upcoming Alien TV series have come courtesy of network chief John Landgraf, who told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour this week that showrunner Noah Hawley would begin shooting the show after he was finished with his new, fifth season of Fargo.

According to Landgraf, FX’s Alien TV series will not feature the franchise’s best-known protagonist, Ellen Ripley, nor any of the other characters from the films, as the show takes place a few decades before Ridley Scott’s original. Landgraf also revealed that the show will take place on Earth and serve as the first story in the Alien franchise, although that’s something Prometheus fans might disagree with.

“Alien takes place before Ripley,” Landgraf said. “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,” he added, going on to reveal that Alien fans can expect a couple of “big surprises” in FX’s upcoming series, although it’s unclear what those might entail.

“All I can tell you is Ripley won’t be a part of it, and neither will any other characters — other than the alien itself,” he said. “Noah has an incredible ability to both find a way of being faithful and showing fidelity to an original creation, like to the Coen brothers [with Fargo] or to Ridley Scott’s movie and James Cameron’s follow-up Aliens, but also to bring something new that represents both an extension and reinvention of a franchise at the same time. He’s done a masterful job with Alien as he did with Fargo. There are some big surprises in store for the audience.”

“I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise,” he continued. “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.”

FX Gives New Details on ‘Alien’ TV Series, Teases “Big Surprises” (The Hollywood Reporter)

  • FX chief John Landgraf told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour on Thursday that Hawley would shoot a new season of Fargo — which was just renewed for season five — before Alien.
  • Alien launched with Scott’s iconic 1979 film, set largely about a cargo-hauling space ship menaced by a lethal stowaway. In recent years, Scott attempted to revive the franchise with mixed results with the 2012 film Prometheus and its 2017 sequel Alien: Covenant.
  • Earlier Thursday, Landgraf announced that Fargo will return for season five, saying only that the season will take place in a contemporary time period, return to the Upper Midwest and tackle the following questions: “When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?”
Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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