Why Noah Hawley’s ALIEN: TV SERIES Isn’t Happening

Mike Sprague   |  

Oct 12, 2020

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Legion and Fargo creator Noah Hawley recently revealed details about his failed TV series pitch set in the universe of the Alien films. And today, Hawley explained why the series just never got very far.

Hawley told Collider: “A few years ago, FX asked me if that was a thing, would that be a thing for me. And, you know, we had a conversation about that, but it didn’t go very far. And obviously, it doesn’t seem to be a thing, Alien for TV, but you know, it’s such a great story, certainly those original two movies are so iconic. But yeah, I don’t know, it’s not on my brain right now.”

Hawley said last month: “Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Stark Trek. It’s sort of about humanity at its worst. 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 adds: “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!’“

Would you like to see Noah Hawley’s Alien: The Series? Make sure to let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!