Is the Beast really cooked? Showrunner Noah Hawley has expressed his goal with his Alien TV series as being a means to remystify the Alien franchise as a whole and its creature - the Xenomorph. As many fans have expressed and debated for years, much of the mystery surrounding the Alien itself has been subdued or lost with the emphasis on the Beast having moved away from a Perfect Organism to more of Colonial Marine canon fodder.
Ridley Scott attempted to add new mystery to the Alien and its origins with his prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, but with Disney's acquisition of the franchise it appears the goal is to reinvent the Alien in a way a "modern" audience will appreciate. Hawley alluded to the goal of creating a fast-paced story, contrary to the slow-burn suspense of the original film.
Last month Noah Hawley introduced a showing of Alien to the Austin Film Society and during the introduction, Hawley touched on what his plans are with the Alien TV series and how he hopes to remystify the entire franchise and the iconic Xenomorph:
When FX asked me if I was interested in adapting what is now a franchise, but for me was always this film, I had to think about what it was about the movie that inspired originally and would I be able to create that for an audience. Of course, you can only see Alien for the first time once and there’s something so unpredictable to the creature at the heart of it, and so disturbing about it, that after 6 movies you think “well, maybe there’s no mystery left to it.” What’s interesting to me is to try to remystify the franchise. The creature, the story, for a modern audience in the way that my 15-year-old won’t think is slow, is the requirement.
Noah Hawley also mentioned that the Alien series for FX begins filming this summer and is currently eyeing a late 2024 release date window, but no official dates were provided.
Ridley Scott acts as executive producer on the series, so we expect his influence may keep his original intentions for the Xenomorph's origins intact.
Thanks to AvPGalaxy for the news!
Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth TV series arrives this summer on Disney+ / Hulu and FX Networks! The first 2 episodes will begin streaming August 12th, 2025 and the show will span 8 hour-long episodes! You can find a list of the episodes titles and their release dates here.
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