Alien TV Series Star Teases "Very Different but Very Exciting" Take on Franchise

When a Fargo TV series was announced, audiences were confused as to how showrunner Noah Hawley would honor the source material without merely replicating it, and according to star of Hawley's upcoming Alien TV series David Rysdahl, audiences can expect the project to similarly find an unconventional way of honoring the spirit of the franchise without merely replicating plot points. The actor pointed out how this will result in something that is both quite different from expectations, but that it will still be an exciting experience. The upcoming Alien TV series isn't expected to debut until sometime in 2025.

"Noah, in a similar fashion to Fargo, takes the movie and asks, 'What's the DNA of this? What's the world perspective? What themes are we tackling? What was the original intent of this movie? Let me see if I can play with that in a new way,'" Rysdahl explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "So he's doing a really interesting job of that on Alien, and it's going to be a very different but very exciting view of what the original movie was."

These comments from the actor resemble similar remarks made by Hawley himself, which emphasize replicating the overall tone and experience of the franchise as opposed to narrative beats.

"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.'"

Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

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