FX confirms that Ripley won’t be in the Alien TV show

Noah Hawley, the mind behind the Fargo TV show, is developing an Alien series for FX. We’ve known that for a little bit, as well as the fact that it will be set on Earth and would likely not feature Sigourney Weaver’s iconic character Ellen Ripley. Now we’re getting a bit more information about the show, including an official confirmation from FX that Ellen Ripley will not be involved at all in this series. And the reason…makes a lot of sense.

Per SyFy Wire, FX chairman John Landgraf spoke about the upcoming Alien series during FX’s Television Critics Association winter virtual press day, revealing that Hawley has turned in five scripts so far for the show. As of now, the Alien series is scheduled to go into production after Hawley finishes work on season 5 of Fargo this winter.

Ripley will not be in the Alien TV show

“It’s set before Ripley,” Landgraf said. “It’s the first story in the Alien franchise to take place on Earth, right near the end of this century, 70-odd years from now. So, Ripley won’t be a part of it, or any other characters aside from the alien itself.”

"Noah has the ability to find a way of showing fidelity to the original creation but then also to bring something new to the table that represents extension and reinvention of a franchise. He’s doing a masterful job with Alien like he did with Fargo. There are big surprises in store for the audience. It’s faithful but also is a really brave reinvention to the franchise."

Now, on the surface this is good news. I love Ripley as much as the next nerd, but the fact that the Alien show isn’t going to be leaning on fan service means it will have to stand on its own merits, and Hawley has certainly done a solid job with Fargo.

On the other hand, the idea of an Alien show set on Earth before Ripley’s time feels like it kind of undermines the whole point of those movies? Preventing the xenomorphs from getting to Earth was a central plot point of pretty much the entire original Alien quadrilogy; it wasn’t until the Alien vs. Predator movies that the concept of the aliens being on Earth in prior eons was introduced. Those movies are pretty divisive though, so it’s hard to imagine the Alien show using them as a jumping off point. Plus, Landgraf specifically says this is the first story in the Alien franchise set on Earth, which seems to imply that he’s not counting the AvP stuff.

All this is to say, we still know very little about Alien. This announcement made me more nervous than excited, but there’s still a lot we need to learn.

FX cancelled Y: The Last Man because “audience decline was really, really, really steep“

Alien wasn’t the only thing Landgraf talked about. He also addressed the reason that FX cancelled Y: The Last Man. The show got the axe after its first season, and was then shopped around to other networks for a bit before it was declared officially dead by its showrunner, Eliza Clark.

Landgraf said that while Y: The Last Man was well loved within the network and everyone thought it was a great show, it simply never caught on with audiences. FX has been closely monitoring viewing numbers since 2002, and it plays a large role in whether they decide to renew a series or not. “Eliza Clark did a great job but the audience decline was really, really, really steep,” he said.

When the network brass uses three “really”s, you know it was bad. On the up side, Alien has a heavily entrenched fanbase, so we can only hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate.

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