Announced in 2020, the television series adaptation of the “Alien” cinematographic saga is progressing slowly, but surely, under the watchful eye of showrunner Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo).
The latter recently spoke with the American site Esquire to give news on the progress of this project, which will be broadcast on the Hulu platform across the Atlantic (and therefore certainly on Disney + in France). “Everything is going wonderfully well,” he says. “It takes time unfortunately because of the scale on which we based ourselves”, specifies the showrunner. What does he mean by that? According to his revelations, the Alien series will explore themes almost untapped in films, including the development of artificial intelligence, the quest for immortality, and transhumanism.
What will the series be about?
If fans of the franchise are used to rubbing shoulders with closed places in the cinematographic saga, Noah Hawley intends to evolve on more familiar ground: planet Earth. “Alien stories are always traps. Trapped in a prison. Trapped aboard a ship. I thought it would be interesting to open up the perspective slightly so that the question of ‘What will happen if we can’t contain what is going to happen?’ become more pressing,” he explains.
Noah Hawley also wants to put the issue of inequality at the heart of the plot. He recalls in particular that, in the first films, it is workers on a mission in interstellar space paid by an unknown company who find themselves in spite of themselves in contact with the Xenomorph. Will follow soldiers, mercenaries, etc. The last two films – Prometheus and Covenant – put a name to one of these companies, namely Weyland-Yutani Corporation, whose activities include space transport, the colonization of planets, or terraforming (not to mention their interest in the study of Xenomorphs).
“In the series, you are also going to see these people who send others on missions,” he reveals. As well as the environment in which these companies evolve, and their place within society on Earth.
“In the films, there is Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which also develops artificial intelligence. But what if there were other societies that tried to explore immortality in another way, with the development of cyborg technologies or transhumanism? Which of these technologies will prevail? It also allows us to ask a central question in works of science fiction: does humanity deserve to survive? As Ellen Ripley’s character says in the second film, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they’re not trying to kill each other for a percentage,” continues Noah Hawley.
It’s worth remembering that, at the moment, having Xenomorph onscreen doesn’t seem to be the show’s priority. This does not mean that they will never appear. But this is clearly not the main subject of the series. Noah Hawley also assured that he would not touch the character of Ellen Ripley: “She is one of the best characters in the history of cinema, I think her story was told to perfection, and I don’t want to no way to ruin that”.
Who is associated with the series?
At the moment, only Noah Hawley is known as showrunner. This arouses the enthusiasm of many fans since he has an excellent reputation, and is in charge of developing the Dr. Doom films, as well as the fourth installment of another cinematographic saga, Star trek: Alternate Universe. No actor-ice name has been revealed at this time.
When will the series air?
According to Esquire, the series is still in the early stages of development. Which can be interpreted as a good sign, because it can mean special attention to the writing of the screenplay. Noah Hawley is said to have written the scripts for the first two episodes, and the series could begin production in the spring of 2022. Like many fictions, Alien will have been hampered by the global coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been eye-opening to see that the entire film industry has had to wait a year, and now they’re trying to squeeze two years of production schedule into one. So it became very difficult to look at all of this, and to plan something for the next six months. Everyone is trying to make up for lost time. So I told myself that we were going to let this period pass for a while longer, in order to be able to do things correctly, ”underlines the showrunner.