Alien: Ridley Scott Slams Noah Hawley’s Planned Television Series

Most genre fans would argue that Ridley Scott’s Alien set the standard of what could be accomplished in the realm of science fiction and horror, with a variety of follow-up adventures and tributes to that seminal film having emerged over the past 40 years, but when it comes to the upcoming Alien TV series from Noah Hawley, Scott himself claims that, no matter how good it might be, it won’t match the achievements of his film. Understandably, many would argue that ever Scott’s own return to the franchise failed to come close to that original film’s successes, confirming just how singular that debut film remains.

“It’ll never be as good as the first one,” Scott shared with The Independent recently when talking about the TV series. “That’s what I’ll say.”

The status of the Alien franchise has undergone a lot of changes in recent years, some of which were promising and others which were disappointing. Despite the excitement over Scott’s return to the series with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, both films earned mixed reactions from critics and underwhelming financial returns. Despite Scott claiming he had other ideas for films that would bridge the gap between Covenant and Alien, his other films’ disappointments make those plans seem unlikely of being realized.

Similarly, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp had mentioned on multiple occasions that he was developing a new film for the series that would see Sigourney Weaver’s return as Ellen Ripley, only for conflicting reports to emerge about the legitimacy of those plans, with Blomkamp since having confirmed that project was definitively dead.

Adding even more complications to the mix was The Walt Disney Company’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, which meant the Alien franchise was now being designed by a relatively family-friendly studio, despite most storylines in the series being R-rated. 

One of the last updates about the project came earlier this year from 

“I think it was very conscious the fact that there’s a cinematic universe, and that while it has some flexibility, that the aesthetic that was established by Ridley Scott and continued by James Cameron is a part of that universe,” FX Networks president John Landgraf shared earlier this summer. “I think you’ll see some inventiveness and some originality that is uniquely Noah.”

Stay tuned for details on the Alien TV series.

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