Alien TV Series: FX President Offers Update, Teases 2023 Debut

FX’s Alien TV series from Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has been shrouded in mystery, but now we may be getting a little glimpse of some story details. During FX’s TCA presentation, FX Networks president John Landgraf gave an update on Hawley’s Alien series. He described the Alien TV series as being “very grounded,” while also indicating that it will arrive in 2023. Landgraf also made sure to iterate that this Alien TV show will stay connected to the cinematic universe established by Ridley Scott and James Cameron, and that “Scott Free and Ridley are involved in this as producers.”

John Landgraf was just as quick to make sure that he established that the FX Alien series will be a fitting balance of the established franchise and Noah Hawley’s unique and quirk vision of genre franchises:

“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.” That said, Landgraf notes “I think you’ll see some inventiveness and some originality that is uniquely Noah.”

Earlier this year, Noah Hawley did his own interview with Vanity Fair in which he revealed a few details about his concept for this FX Aliens TV series. The Scott/Cameron influence won’t require Hawley to tell another Ripley story – and he’s definitely found a ‘Hawley-esque’ spin for the alien Xenomorphs the series is built around:

“The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship,” Hawley explained. “I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has left people primed to have their fears of outbreak stoked by the horror genre, and it sounds like Alien will do just that. The other thing the pandemic highlighted was the deep social inequalities that currently exist – inequality that Hawley wants to explore using Xenomorphs and mayhem:

“On some level it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world,” Hawley said. “The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.

In mine, you’re also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.’”

Not surprising that we didn’t get that explanation from the FX Network president…

FX’s Alien TV series will supposedly arrive in 2023.