It's a great time to be an Alien fan. Next month, the new Alien film Alien: Romulus from Fede Álvarez hits theaters. But lest you worry that it'll be years before you see another xenomorph after that, there's also a television show heading to FX and Hulu in the near future, helmed by Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley. We've known this show was in the works and filming for a while now, but at last we have a good, solid update about where it's at.
Hawley's Alien show is finished filming! “We just wrapped production, so now I’m into the long post that gets into visual effects," he told Variety this week. "It’s a very big show. It’s nice to have some time with it. The first year of anything, you want to feel like you’re not up against the wall in terms of time. I’ve seen four of the eight hours of director cuts and engaged in the process of figuring out, cinematically, what it wants to be. It’s one of my favorite parts of of making a show.”
Along with the good news that show is finished filming, we got another exciting bit of information: it now has an official title, Alien: Earth. This was first confirmed by FX boss John Landgraf in another Variety interview, and later corroborated by Hawley.
"Noah is deep in work on Season 1 of Alien: Earth right now," Landgraf said. "We’re in post-production, and we are talking to him and watching cuts every week. We’re pretty bullish on Alien: Earth and we’ve told him that assuming, as we hope, Alien: Earth is a returning television series, we want him to focus on on at least writing two seasons of it before returning to a possible sixth season of Fargo."
FX is currently awash in Emmy nominations right now; between Fargo, The Bear, the masterful historical drama Shōgun, and a few others, the network received a record 93 nominations. Hopefully, Alien: Earth can continue this streak of excellence.
It's certainly exciting to hear that FX is so gung-ho about Hawley's Alien show that they're already pushing for a second season. Alien: Earth is a prequel to the original 1979 Alien film starring Sigourney Weaver, and as the title suggests, it's set primarily on Earth. That's an interesting set up, considering how much of the early Alien movies revolved around keeping the terrifying xenomorphs from ever reaching our home planet. My curiosity's high to see what Hawley's series is all about.
According to Variety, Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, David Rysdahl, Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav, Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille and Adrian Edmondson. Expect to see it premiere on FX and Hulu sometime in 2025.
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