Summary

FX’s Alien series, created by Noah Hawley, won’t premiere until 2025 due to recent setbacks and strikes in Hollywood. The show explores a future Earth where different companies compete for dominance in technologies like artificial intelligence and immortality. Production for the series has been delayed, with the majority of filming still remaining, but Hawley is excited to be a part of the iconic Alien franchise.

Some bad news for Alien fans as reports have indicated that FX’s Alien series likely won’t premiere until 2025. The series hails from creator Noah Hawley (Legion), who told The Wrap, “The plan right now is to go back in January and be shooting in February, and it looks like shoot until July or so, which puts the air date somewhere in the first half of ’25.” Thanks to Fargo, Hawley has some experience with taking a popular movie and turning it into a successful TV show. Last year, he opened up a little about his vision for the show, the most recent setback for which has been the recent strikes that brought Hollywood largely to a standstill. Discussing the show with Esquire, Hawley revealed that his foray into the world of Alien will be set on Earth.

“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 … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence-but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

Hawley’s Alien series wasn’t as badly affected by the actors’ strike as other shows. Several cast members, such as Alex Lawther (The End of the F***ing World), who plays CJ, and Essie Davis (The Babadook), who plays Dame Silvia, could keep filming since they were international actors and not subject to the strike’s rules.

Unfortunately, one cast member in the show who is American is Sydney Chandler (Don’t Worry Darling), who plays the lead role. And this forced the show to pause production back in August.

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Noah Hawley Still Has ‘The Bulk of the Show to Film’
Alien Main Genre Sci-Fi Genres Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller
As Hawley explained to The Wrap, there is still the “bulk” of the Alien series left to film.

“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.”

For frame of reference, the Alien series was supposed to start filming in March 2022, but was delayed until 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is that now the SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP have reached a tentative agreement, Hawley and co. should hopefully get back to Thailand, where the show is being filmed, in January and be shooting in February until around July. All of which means the show probably isn’t going to air until 2025. Whatever happens, Hawley is excited to be a part of such an iconic franchise.

“It’s very exciting that I get this opportunity, with films like ‘Fargo’ or ‘Alien,’ to live within the world that was created by these directors and storytellers. It raises the hair on the back of your neck in a good way to walk onto a set where you feel like you’re on the ‘Nostromo.’ (The show does not take place in the, but the sets used were inspiried by the ones in Alien (1979)) You’re like, ‘Oh my god, I’m in the movie.’”

The way that things are shaping up, Hawley’s Alien show will be premiering around the same time as Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe) and starring Caliee Spaeny (Prisiclla). That could work to both projects’ advantage, but it could also test even die-hard Alien fans in a ‘too much of a good thing’ kind of way.