The Alien franchise, dormant since 2017’s Alien Covenant, is about to come roaring back to life. Not only is there the new feature film on the way, Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Álvarez, but there’s also a new Alien TV series on the way as well. And, this series has Fargo‘s Noah Hawley as the creative in charge.
Here’s everything we know so far about the upcoming Alien series, set for release on FX for Hulu.
Title
So far, everyone involved with the series is simply calling it Alien. We imagine that could change, and a subtitle will be added when it finally arrives. If only to not confuse it with the original 1979 film, or more likely, to not confuse it with any new films in the franchise like Romulus. But for now, we’re sticking to calling it just Alien.
Alien’s Plot
The new series is a prequel to every iteration of the franchise so far, taking place in the year 2089. That’s about four years before Prometheus, and about thirty years before Ridley Scott’s film. Unlike previous films, it will take place on Earth. It deals with the emergence of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, often referred to in the films as “the company.” In the later part of this century, Weyland-Yutani will be pioneering android intelligence, as we saw with Ash in the original film and Bishop in James Cameron’s Aliens.
Showrunner Noah Hawley has said the race between corporations to create new android life will largely be the focus of the series. But given that the title of the show is Alien, the actual xenomorphs have to turn up at some point we think. The aliens on Earth decades before Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo discover them is a bit of a huge continuity change, but we expect Noah Hawley to discover a decent workaround. There’s lots of wiggle room there.
Behind the Scenes
The new Alien series has quite a pedigree of talent behind it. Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley came up with this series and will also direct at least some of the episodes. Original Alien director Ridley Scott is an executive producer on the series. Alien is filming in both Thailand and the United Kingdom.
Alien’s Cast
Alien the series stars Sydney Chandler as a series lead, Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, and Samuel Blenkin as the mysterious CEO Boy Kavalier. Essie Davis is Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, and Kit Young as Tootles. Additionally, Timothy Olyphant has reportedly joined the cast as “Kirsh, a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Chandler’s Wendy, who is a hybrid, a meta-human who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult.” Fargo‘s David Rysdahl has also come aboard in an undisclosed role, as has The Peripheral‘s Moe Bar-El, who will have a major recurring role on the season of the Alien series. Foundation‘s Sandra Yi Sencindiver, meanwhile, will play “a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation” in multiple episodes.
Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille, and Adrian Edmondson round out the series casting.
Given the timeline of the series, it’s all but confirmed that none of the original film’s actors will reprise their roles for the series. Sadly, that means no Sigourney Weaver this time.
Alien’s Release Date
So far, all we know is that filming is set to continue until mid-2024. So the Alien series likely won’t drop of FX until early 2025.
Originally published December 28, 2023.
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