In an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, Noah Hawley teased his FX Alien series, which he is gearing up to shoot “next spring,” clarifying that “it’s not a Ripley story.”
The Fargo and Legion creator was referring, of course, to the iconic character played by Sigourney Weaver, who faced off with a Xenomorph in Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film, Alien.
“She’s one of the great characters of all time,” Hawley said, “and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don’t want to mess with it.”
From Hawley’s perspective, 20th Century’s Alien films—helmed by Scott, James Cameron and David FIncher—have always been “great monster movies” that are “not just monster movies.
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“They’re about humanity trapped between our primordial, parasitic past and our artificial intelligence future—and they’re both trying to kill us,” he said. “Here you have human beings and they can’t go forward and they can’t go back.”
He said that his take on the franchise will look to go deep, as well, examining “inequality” as it juxtaposes the people “you send to do the dirty work” with “the people who are sending them.”
“You will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved,” Alien‘s creator and EP added. “If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us?”
Hawley also shared that he’s already penned “the first two scripts” for the series, announced back December, which will take place on Earth. It will reportedly blend the timeless horror of the original 1979 film and the non-stop action of Cameron’s 1986 sequel.
During his interview with Vanity Fair, Hawley was also asked if there will be a fifth season of his acclaimed FX crime drama, Fargo. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “I don’t have it yet.” He later touched on his latest novel Anthem, which is scheduled for release in January.
