Noah Hawley has explained why he is not using the backstory provided in Prometheus for his upcoming Alien prequel series, saying he likes the "retro-futurism" of the original films.
The highly anticipated FX Alien series takes place roughly 70 years in the future, predating Ridley Scott's original 1979 film, which is set in the year 2122, meaning the events of the new show are closer to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant in the franchise timeline. Hawley, however, is not relying on those films to tell the new story.
The Fargo showrunner told KCRW's The Business podcast, per The Hollywood Reporter, that he spoke to Scott about "many, many elements" of the Alien series, including its ties to the prequels, but ultimately decided to cut loose and move away from the bioweapon backstory because he preferred the lore of the original films.
"For me, and for a lot of 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 may have existed for a million years out there in space," Hawley explained. "The idea that, on some level, it was a bioweapon created half an hour ago, that's just inherently less useful to me.
"In terms of the mythology, what's scary about this monster, is that when you look at those first two movies, you have this retro-futuristic technology," he continued. "You have giant computer monitors, these weird keyboards… You have to make a choice. Am I doing that? Because in the prequels, Ridley made the technology thousands of years more advanced than the technology of Alien, which is supposed to take place in those movies' future. There's something about that that doesn't really compute for me. I prefer the retro-futurism of the first two films. And so that's the choice I've made — there's no holograms. The convenience of that beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me."
Hawley has also confirmed that the new series won't be a "Ripley story" and will take place on Earth, exploring the consequences of inequality. Sydney Chandler is starring in the lead role alongside Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, David Rysdahl, Samuel Blenkin, and Adarsh Gourav, among others.
FX's Alien series initially entered production in July, four days after the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming continued for a while without SAG-AFTRA members, using only British actors associated with UK guild Equity before grinding to a complete halt in August. It is now on track to resume filming in Thailand soon.
Meanwhile, new Alien movie Alien: Romulus is also in the works. Romulus takes place between Alien and Aliens — that is, between the first and second movies in the sci-fi franchise. Ridley Scott's 1979 horror classic Alien ends with Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in stasis as the sole survivor of the devastating alien attack on the Nostromo. James Cameron's 1986 action sci-fi masterpiece Aliens picks up the plot 57 years later, when Ripley is rescued from her shuttle.
The last Alien movie to be released was 2017's Alien: Covenant. In our review, we said it "strikes a more favorable balance between the unwieldy philosophical ideas of Prometheus and the classic horror and suspense of the 1979 original film." Alien: Romulus is set for release on August 16, 2024.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X @AdeleAnkers.
