Alien was among the many franchises acquired by Disney when they merged with Fox, and after successfully rebooting the Predator in Prey, there's a lot of excitement to see what the studio has in store for the Xenomorphs.
We know a TV series is in the works from Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley, of course, and FX Chairman John Landgraf has shared some exciting new details (via SFFGazette.com). Confirming that all scripts have been turned in before shooting begins next year, the executive revealed that the show will move away from familiar settings...and corporations.
Asked if the Weylan-Yutani corporation factors into the show, Landgraf said, "The Alien cinematic universe is that it’s a world where that’s sort of dominated by large corporate entities, and Weylan-Yutani has been in an important component of the movies."
"There are references to that corporation in this show. But it actually takes place in the territory of a different corporation that Noah invented."
It sounds like we're getting a totally fresh start, and the FX boss would go on to say the network's approach to this Alien TV series compared to the previous movies is as different as James Cameron's Aliens was to Sir Ridley Scott's Alien.
"I’m a big fan of Alien and Aliens and I remember watching both of them in the theater and how how shockingly original and surprising each of them was in its own way," Landgraf explained. "And so, similar to his approach to Fargo, Noah decided to not to take Ripley or any character from Alien – except perhaps the xenomorph itself – but go back and figure out what made the franchise so great and so durable in the first place and see if he could find an experience that felt like walking into a theater and seeing one of those first two movies, where you get caught off guard."
We're intrigued to see what direction the show heads in, and while some fans might be disappointed that we won't focus on familiar locations and characters, an argument could be made that it's about time to move on (that was evident from what we saw in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant).
We hope to have more on this one to share with you soon, but stay tuned to SFFGazette.com for the latest (including intel on when exactly shooting begins).