The upcoming show’s director, Noah Hawley, recently spoke on KCRW’s The Business, giving fans a glimpse into what this Earth-set series will bring. He dug into the franchise’s core, saying:
“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 its AI future, and they’re both trying to kill us. So, there’s nowhere to go. 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 AI beings who we think will do what we tell them — but ultimately might lose their mind — is there a way out?”
The original ‘Alien’ movie and its 1986 sequel, ‘Aliens,’ centered on the tension between humans, an ancient alien creature, and threatening AI characters like the android Ash and the ship’s computer, Mother. Hawley plans to keep these themes alive in the new series:
“There’s a moment in the second film where Sigourney Weaver says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse – you don’t see them screwing each other over for a percentage.’ I think there’s something really intriguing about exploring humanity in all its goods and evils and then trying to recreate for an audience those feelings that you had in watching those first two films – which isn’t easy in a franchise that has had four subsequent films and another film coming out soon [‘Alien: Romulus’], but I think I have some tricks up my sleeve.”
Will The New Show Have Anything From The Films Made By The Original Director?
In ‘Prometheus’ (2012) and ‘Alien: Covenant’ (2017), Scott introduced a controversial backstory for the aliens, presenting them as bio-weapons created by a species called The Engineers.
The ‘Fargo’ showrunner shared his take on this story while explaining whether his new show would touch on it. He explained:
“Ridley and I have talked about this — and many, many elements of the show. For me, and for a lot of people, this ‘perfect life form’ — 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. The idea that, on some level, it was a bioweapon created half an hour ago, that’s just inherently less useful to me.”
The director also mentioned the different approaches to technology in the films, noting:
“And in terms of the mythology, what’s scary about this monster is that when you look at those first two movies, you have this retro-futuristic technology. You have giant computer monitors and these weird keyboards … You have to make a choice. Am I doing that? Because in the prequels, Ridley made the technology thousands of years more advanced than the technology of ‘Alien,’ which is supposed to take place in those movies’ future.”
For his part, Hawley is aiming to align his series with the original films in terms of technology and feel, choosing not to include the more advanced elements like holograms seen in the prequels.
The Details About The Series’ Release Date
Facing a delay due to the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, the filming of ‘Alien’ will go on soon in Thailand. The show will likely premiere in early 2025 after shooting wraps up in July 2024.
