FX network boss John Landgraf spoke about the upcoming “Alien” TV series earlier today as part of FX’s TCA panel.
The “Alien” series hails from Noah Hawley whose “Fargo” show just scored a fifth season renewal. According to Landgraf, Hawley will do the new “Fargo” season first with that to shoot this winter.
Then he’ll get to work on the “Alien” series which apparently has several scripts already completed. Asked about how the new show will fit into continuity, Landgraf says:
“There are some big surprises in store for the audience. ‘Alien’ takes place before Ripley. It’s the first story that takes place in the ‘Alien’ franchise on Earth. So, it takes place on our planet. Right near the end of this century we’re in, so 70 odd years from now.”
By that comment, it will be set in the 2090s – around the time that Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” is set and a good thirty years before events of the first “Alien”. Don’t expect any of the characters from any of those films to show up, the series is set to avoid the ‘filled with fan service’ model that has arisen in recent years:
“Ripley won’t be a part of it or any of the other characters of ‘Alien’ other than the alien itself…Noah has this incredible ability, and I think you’ve seen it with ‘Fargo,’ to both find a way of being faithful, showing fidelity to an original creation like a Coen brothers’ movie or in this case, Ridley Scott’s and James Cameron’s follow-up, ‘Aliens,’ but also to bring something new to the table that represents extension and reinvention of a franchise at the same time.”
It also suggests we shouldn’t expect any sign of an “Alien” series before well into 2023 at the earliest.
Source: Deadline
