Alien TV Series Showrunner Talks How Prequel Channels the Spirit of the Franchise

When it comes to major sci-fi brands like Star Wars or Star Trek, their decades of stories have seen adventures unfold both in theaters and on the small screen, with each respective brand evoking specific vibes that set themselves apart from one another. The Alien franchise, on the other hand, has only earned theatrical installments, so for Noah Hawley’s upcoming TV series set in that world, fans are curious about how those themes and ideas will translate into long-form storytelling, with the showrunner recently explaining how he aims to capture the tone of the franchise. The Alien TV series is expected to be unleashed in 2025 on FX.

“The reality is, when you get right down to it, there are three science fiction brands — there’s Star Trek, Star Wars, and Alien — and they each have a completely unique look. You would never confuse Star Trek for Alien, or Star Wars for Star Trek,” Hawley explained to Collider. “I don’t know that it’s intimidating as much as it is a challenge that is an exciting challenge. When we started Fargo, I felt liberated because I thought, ‘Well, this is such a terrible idea to try to make a show called Fargo that is adjacent to the movie, but it has nothing to do with the movie, that three people will watch and two of them will hate watch it.’ On some level, it felt like I was liberated to give it my all and really go for it. There was no playing it safe.” 

He continued, “Since then, I was gonna make a Star Trek movie, and I have been talking with FX about Alien for many years. I’ve gained confidence in my process and this idea. All I do is go back to Fargo the movie, or Alien the movie, and I think, ‘Well, what did I feel while I was watching it?’ And then, I try to create those feelings in the audience while telling them a completely different story, but it’s not really about, ‘What are the elements from the movie that I need?,’ or ‘They had a car salesman, and I’ll have an insurance salesman.’”

The showrunner went on to note that, whether it be Fargo or Alien, it isn’t so much about replicating plot points so much as about replicating emotional reactions to the material.

“It’s really about that moment at the end of Fargo where he got the three-cent stamp and she’s gonna have the baby, and you feel this amazing sense of, they’re safe now. It’s that feeling. We need to build to the power of that feeling so that it really lands,” Hawley explained. “And Alien has its own set of feelings, and a sense of dread and discovery. It’s a deeply unsettling movie, but strangely, I look at it almost like Waiting for Godot. You’ve got Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton. It’s about a group of people who are going to a place they don’t know where, to do a thing they don’t know what, for someone they don’t know who. It’s such an existential blue-collar journey. But if you copy it precisely, then just watch the movie. You have to do something with it that’s, on some level, totally different and yet feels similar. As you said, every time you watch Fargo, you’re like, ‘How does it feel the same, but totally different?’”

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!