TCA 2023 is underway, and fans of the Alien franchise are in for a delight. During the FX’s panel, the network announced that the prequel series is in active pre-production with scripts locked in. Collider's own Carly Lane is in attendance and reports that FX chairman John Landgraf revealed that showrunner Noah Hawley is meeting with the production designer for the series now. He further added that Hawley is currently working on Season 5 of Fargo, but will begin production on Alien after that.
The series was officially announced last December as a prequel during Disney’s Investor’s Day and is due to start filming this year. With promising updates now fans can expect more details about the project soon. The currently untitled Alien series is being written by Hawley and is being produced by the original Alien director Ridley Scott.
The Alien franchise is a staple of fans of the science fiction horror genre. The original 1979 feature was directed by Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon and featured the likes of Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, and more. Ever since given its popularity it has spawned three sequels, two prequels, and two crossover films with the Predator franchise, as well as several comic books, novels, toys, video games, and theme park attractions.
However, Hawley’s take marks the first TV series set in the universe. While the plot details are scarce the series is expected to have a similar tone to the first two movies in the franchise. The showrunner previously teased that the series will be set on the “Earth of the future.” He further described it as “Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla. Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don't know which one it is...” Connecting to the movies the showrunner compared these companies to the “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?”
Hawley is well known for creating the long-running TV series Fargo. He also served as the showrunner on FX and Marvel’s Legion starring Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, and more. His other credits include Bones, The Unusuals, and My Generation, and wrote features like The Alibi Lucy in the Sky, which he also directed.
Currently, no casting news has been released, but the series is expected to be released in 2023.