Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has been in production on his upcoming Alien TV series for FX, but because of the actors’ strike, which recently ended, there’s only been so much that he can do. He has been shooting some of the series without its SAG-AFTRA members, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done because the lead actress Sydney Chandler, hasn’t been involved.
Hawley offered a recent update on the project and while talking with The Wrap, he explained:
“I was able to complete filming most of the first hour. That said, I wasn’t able to film anything with my star. So I still have the bulk of the show to film, and we have seven more hours to shoot. I certainly would have loved to get the show in front of people as quickly as possible.”
Because of the strike, though, the release of the series is being delayed and the filmmaker thinks that it won’t premiere until sometime in 2025. He said:
“We’re all just waiting for the strike, and it will end. The plan right now is to go back in January and be shooting in February, and looks like shoot until July or so, which puts the air date somewhere in the first half of ’25.”
The story for the series “takes place before Ripley. It’s the first story that takes place in the Alien franchise on Earth.” It’s also been revealed that it will be set near “the end of this century we’re in — so 70-odd years from now.” It will also be the first Alien story set on Earth.
The project is also said to blend “both the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second, it’s going to be a scary thrill ride that will blow people back in their seats.“
Hawley previously talked about the project, saying: “It’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both [are] trying to kill us. It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla. Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is.”
He went on to share: “It’s a story that’s set on Earth also. The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”
The show also stars Alex Lawther (The End of the F*cking World) as the male lead, a soldier named CJ, with Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) as another main character named Boy Kavalier, a CEO. Additional cast members include Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) as Dame Silvia and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly.
