FX's Alien TV Series Will Reportedly Film Without SAG Members

By Patrick Cavanaugh

The writers' strike has already been impacting all corners of Hollywood for months, but with an actors' strike now officially happening, even more productions will be facing complications. One of the more anticipated projects on the horizon is a TV series set in the world of Alien from Noah Hawley, but a new report from Variety claims that the international nature of the project means only two main figures are part of SAG-AFTRA, so the series will aim to shoot around them for the foreseeable future. Given how long it has been since the writers' strike started and how it hasn't made substantial progress towards being resolved, the actors' strike will likely follow suit, making it entirely unknown when either strike will be resolved and productions will be able to resume.

The outlet points out that the series is currently in pre-production in Thailand and that the cast of the series is comprised of a mix of SAG-AFTRA and Equity members, including potentially two lead stars, but that the sprawling nature of the series could allow elements to be filmed without those figures. Given that a number of other movies and TV shows have shut down entirely, being able to film anything for the series is still an advantage other projects don't have.

The Alien TV series was announced back in 2020, with the franchise being one of the exciting brands that The Walt Disney Company secured in their acquisition of 20th Century Fox. In addition to this TV series, a new film is also in the works, which recently wrapped production.

Hawley previously teased what would set his new TV series apart from events that have happened on the big screen.

"It's set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla," Hawley explained to Esquire back in 2022. "Someone's going to monopolize electricity. We just don't know which one it is ... In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?"

He added, "Alien is a fascinating story because it's not just a monster movie; it's about how we're trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us ... As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, 'I don't know which species is worse. At least they don't f-ck each other over for a percentage.' Even if the show was 60% of the best horror-action on the planet, there's still 40% where we have to ask, 'What are we talking about it, beneath it all?' Thematically, it has to be interesting. It's humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world."

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Stay tuned for updates on the Alien TV series.

Are you looking forward to the project? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.

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