The showrunner of the “Alien” prequel series explains why he won’t use the backstory from “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant”…
The next Alien series, which will be set in the 2090s, will feature the arrival of the first Xenomorph on Earth and will thus precede the original film franchise. In a recent interview with KCRW (via The Hollywood Reporter), Noah Hawley (Fargo), who will lead the show, revealed some crucial information about the upcoming program…
And right off the bat, the showrunner proved he understood the franchise by giving a pretty perfect depiction of what Alien really is.
“The problem with Alien is that it’s not just a great monster movie. It’s the story of humanity stuck between its primordial parasitic past and its AI future, and they’re both trying to kill us. So there is nowhere to go. It’s really a question of whether humanity deserves to survive? Humanity’s arrogance in thinking we are nothing more than food and its arrogance in creating these AI beings who we think will do what we tell them but might ultimately lose their minds. Is there a way out?”
In Ridley Scott’s 1979 cult classic Alien, The Eighth Passenger, there are indeed both the titular primary monster and two sinister elements of artificial intelligence: the murderous android Ash and the Nostromo’s on-board computer, MU-TH-UR, nicknamed “Mother” by members of the ship’s crew.
“There is a moment in the second film [Aliens, 1986] Or Sigourney Weaver said: ‘I don’t know which species is worse, you don’t see them stabbing each other in the back for a percentage.’ I think there’s something really intriguing about exploring humanity and all the good and evil that it offers, and then trying to recreate the feelings you felt watching these two first films for an audience – which is not easy in a franchise that has had four sequel films and another film coming out soon [Alien: Romulus]but I think I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
Back to basics
Noah Hawley was therefore asked whether he would use the backstory provided in the most recent Alien prequels from Ridley Scott – namely Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). As a reminder, these two games introduced a controversial story according to which the aliens were manufactured as biological weapons by a mysterious race nicknamed the Engineers.
“Ridley and I talked about it – and talked about many elements of the show. To me, and to many people, this ‘perfect life form’ – as it was described in the first film – is the product of millions of years of evolution that created this creature that could have existed for a million years in space. The idea that on some level this was a bioweapon created half an hour ago is just less useful to me on its own. And in terms of mythology, the scary thing about this monster is that when you look at these first two films, you have this retro-futuristic technology. You have giant computer screens, these weird keyboards… You have to make a choice. Do I do this?”
He continued: “Because in the prequels, Ridley made the technology thousands of years more advanced than the technology in Alien, which is supposed to take place in the future of those films. There’s something about this that doesn’t work for me. I prefer the retro-futurism of the first two films. And so that’s the choice I made: there are no holograms. The convenience of this wonderful Apple Store technology is not available to me.”
Filming in progress
Alien, the series, which had to stop production last August due to Hollywood strikes, should soon restart filming in Thailand. It will feature fairly young characters, worn by actors Sydney Chandler (the daughter of Kyle Chandler), Alex Lawther (The End of The F***king World), Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) and Kit Young (Shadow and Bone). Timothy Olyphant and Essie Davis will also be there.
The series, produced by Hulu for its FX platform, should logically be broadcast in France on Disney+.
In the meantime, Alien, the eighth passenger can be rediscovered on Disney+.