An untitled Alien TV show from Fargo creator Noah Hawley and FX, and will be coming to the Hulu streaming platform. It’s due for the release some time in 2025.

Development

Disney announced the Alien FX Series on December 10, 2020 during an investor livestream by FX Chairman John Landgraf and it will be coming to the Hulu streaming platform. Landgraf described the series as combining elements from Alien and Aliens, and will be “set not too far into our future, it’s the first ‘Alien’ story set on Earth—and by blending 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.” Some promotional pictures were shown off in the presentation:

Writer and Producer Noah Hawley will be helming the series, and Ridley Scott is in advanced talks to Executive Produce. Hawley is best known for being the showrunner on the shows Fargo and Legion, and has been working to get an Alien series launched for quite some time.

In early 2019 reports surfaced on how his series pitch was shelved as the executives at then-20th Century Fox wanted to keep Alien a theatrical series. When Disney bought Fox, further talks happened with Disney about getting it off the ground. Hawley spoke about the show again in September 2020 and he compared what he would have done with Alien with Legion.

“Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Star Trek. It’s sort of about humanity at its worst,” he said. “There’s this moment in the second film when Sigourney says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t screw each other over for a percentage.’ If you look at what Aliens tends to be, it’s usually a trapped story – trapped in a ship, trapped in a prison, etc. And because the Alien has this life cycle to it, where it goes from egg, to chestburster, to xenomorph, there becomes a certain routine to it.”

He continued: “I thought it would be interesting if you could expand. If you’re going to make something for television, you’ve got 10 hours let’s say. Even if you have a lot of action, like two hours, then you’re still going to have eight hours left. So what is the show about? That’s what I tried to talk to them about. As I did with Legion, the exercise is: Let’s take the superhero stuff out of the show and see if it’s still a great show. What’s the show about? Let’s take the Alien out of the show. What’s the show about? What are the themes, who are the characters and what is the human drama? Then we drop the aliens back in and we go, ‘This is great. Not only is there great human drama, but there’s aliens!’”

Just before Disney revealed the Alien show, Hawley said he still had talks about doing the show from time to time.

AvPGlaaxy has posted some concept art from the TV series in 2023. The first piece depicts Wendy within an urban forest, wielding blades as a Xenomorph stalks her through the trees. Next up we can see another angle of the USCSS Maginot Weyland-Yutani starship crash, something we shared artwork on last fall.

Prodigy Tactical Response, a PMC unit of the Prodigy Corporation rushes to view the crash from their rooftop recreation area. Lastly, we have a view of the crashed Maginot’s cryosleep chamber, being explored by Prodigy Tactical Response soldiers Hermit and Idoya.

Cast

Sydney Chandler was cast in a role we know as Wendy in development.

Wendy is described as tall, athletic, and androgynous. Wendy is not a human instead she is a “Hybrid”, a superhuman who is essentially perfect. However, all is not as it appears with Wendy as she in fact has the mind of Hermit’s 10 year old sister Marcy. She learns how to live and control this new body under the tutelage of “Synth” scientist Kirsh and human scientist Dame Sylvia.

Wendy eventually becomes a leader to the hybrids and creates the path for a new era of enhanced beings. Wendy, once she reaches full development, will have super strength, speed, and agility combined with the limitless courage of a young mind. Wendy is not only a new being, but a tool of monumental value to the world.

More cast members were announced in July 2023. Alex Lawther, known for his starring role in Netflix’s young adult drama The End of the F*cking World, has been cast as the male lead, a soldier named CJ, with Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) as another main character, 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.

Kit Young has joined the Alien series’ cast as the character Tootles.

Timothy Olyphant has been cast in the upcoming series, rumoured to be playing the synthetic scientist character Kirsh. Kirsh is a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Chandler’s Wendy who is a hybrid, a meta-human who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult.

More cast members were announced – David Rysdahl, Babou Ceesay (Guerrilla, Damilola), Jonathan Ajayi (Wonder Woman 1984, Noughts and Crosses), Erana James (Uproar, The Wilds), Lily Newmark (Pin Cushion, Sex Education), Diêm Camille (Washington Black, Alex Rider 3), and Adrian Edmondson (War & Peace, A Spy Among Friends), Moe Bar-El (The Peripheral).

• Sydney Chandler as Wendy, a woman who has the body of an adult and consciousness of a child
• Alex Lawther as CJ, a soldier
• Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, a CEO
• Essie Davis as Dame Silvia
• Adarsh Gourav as Slightly
• Kit Young as Tootles
• Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, Wendy’s synth mentor and trainer
• David Rysdahl
• Babou Ceesay
• Jonathan Ajayi
• Erana James
• Lily Newmark
• Diêm Camille
• Adrian Edmondson

Production

Filming on the show was due to commence in March 2022 but was delayed due to the Covid pandemic. Filming began July 19, 2023 in Thailand. Despite the SAG-AFTRA strike, filming began without American actress Sydney Chandler as the British cast were working under an Equity contract.

Production was ultimately paused in late August due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike as some of the cast were members of the union. According to Noah Hawley, only the first hour of the series was filmed. The cast and crew went back to Thailand in January 2024 and shooting resumed in February 2024.

Cinematographer turned director Dana Gonzales will direct a number of episodes in the series.

Noah Hawley said the series will be 8 hours long.

Release

The Alien TV Show is aiming to be released in the first half of  2025.

News Archive

“It’s Designed To Be An Ongoing Series” – FX Chairman Talks Alien Series Length (10/02/24 09:53)
“We Want Quality, Not Quantity” – Noah Hawley Talks Alien Series Length (17/01/24 09:42)
Noah Hawley Speaks on Prequel Alien Origin Being “Inherently less useful” to the Story of the FX Alien Series (14/01/24 00:41)
Moe Bar-El Joins the Cast of Alien FX Series! (05/01/24 06:50)
David Rysdahl Talks FX Alien Series (08/12/23 08:43)

You can view the full news archive for Alien TV Series here.