Not too much is known about Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien series for FX, but a recent status update came during the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour.
During the 2023 TCA, FX updated fans on where Hawley’s series currently stands. According to FX (via Collider’s Carly Lane-Perry), the series is now in “active pre-production,” with scripts having been written for the series. FX chairman John Landgraf also added that Hawley is currently working on the upcoming fifth season of FX’s Fargo series, but will begin work on Alien after that.
Hawley’s series will be the first-ever Alien story set on Earth and, judging by his comments, will explore the more grounded aspects of the franchise. The director also touched on the inclusion of Weyland-Yutani — the massive corporation that’s found in nearly every Alien property — and how he plans to deliver a series that both captures the horror-action aspect of the Alien franchise and explores other themes established in the world.
In past interviews, Landgraf has also offered up brief updates on what the series might include and revealed that the series will feature plenty of new things to the world of Alien.
“I’m a big fan of Alien and Aliens, and I remember watching both of them in the theater and how shockingly original and surprising each of them was in its own way,” Landgraf said. “And so, similar to his approach to Fargo, Noah decided not to take Ripley or any character from Alien — except perhaps the xenomorph itself — but go back and figure out what made the franchise so great and so durable in the first place and see if he could find an experience that felt like walking into a theater and seeing one of those first two movies, where you get caught off-guard. That’s all I can say at this point, though.”
