FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Sydney Chandler as Wendy. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Preview:
‘Alien: Earth’ will return for a second season.
Creator Noah Hawley has signed a new deal with FX.
The new season will start shooting next year.
As one of the biggest, buzziest TV hits of the year, you might have expected an announcement about a second season of Noah Hawley’s ‘Alien: Earth’ to happen a little sooner.
Still, cable channel FX is making sure that Hawley and his show is not left in limbo long, locking the creator down to a rich new development deal and flashing the greenlight for a new season of the series.
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Here’s what Hawley had to say on the new development:
“I’m thrilled that this expanded deal opens the door to new opportunities across all of Disney Entertainment Television. FX has always supported bold, character-driven storytelling. From the very beginning with ‘Fargo,’ they’ve encouraged me to take creative risks and follow the story wherever it leads. I’m grateful to continue exploring the world of ‘Alien: Earth’ alongside our partners, cast, and crew as we begin the next chapter.”
Related Article: TV Review: ‘Alien: Earth’
What’s the story of ‘Alien: Earth’?
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Babou Ceesay as Morrow. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Set before the events of the original 1979 ‘Alien’ movie, ‘Alien: Earth’ follows what happens when a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, putting a mysterious young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers into a situation and a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.
As for what will happen in the second season? Unlike ‘Fargo’, which tends to be an anthology series with loose connections, Hawley has said that ‘Alien: Earth’ will continue to follow the story of Chandler’s Wendy who (spoiler alert in case you’ve yet to watch the first run of episodes) ended up overtaking the Prodigy facility where her hybrid body was created, and bonding with one of the Xenomorphs.
The season left plenty of dangling questions to be answered about the situation, so we’re happy Hawley and his team will get the chance to answer them.
When can we expect the second season of ‘Alien: Earth’?
That’s the disappointing part of the news: the new season doesn’t kick off shooting until next year –– with production moving to London after the first shot in Thailand –– so we wouldn’t expect to see the show return to our screens until 2027 at the earliest.
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Sydney Chandler as Wendy. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Sydney Chandler as Wendy. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
‘Alien: Earth’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.
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Launching on FX and Hulu on August 12 with the first two episodes (six more debut once per week after that), ‘Alien: Earth’ is the latest attempt to get more mileage out of the venerable sci-fi/horror franchise birthed by writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, alongside director Ridley Scott back in 1979 with ‘Alien’.
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Alex Lawther as Hermit. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
The ‘Alien’ franchise is one that can be truly hard to get a handle on. Following Ridley Scott’s genre-busting mash-up of sci-fi and haunted house movies in 1979, James Cameron blew the doors off the movie series with the superlative ‘Aliens’ in 1986, but since then it has been on something of a slippery slope –– David Fincher’s divisive ‘Alien³’ has its defenders, but even Scott’s more recent revisitation of the xenomorph universe headed into ponderous pretension.
Fede Alvarez’ 2024 effort ‘Alien: Romulus’ had better luck, but even that was derided for one or two choices (not the least of which was the dreadful application of a classic ‘Aliens’ line).
Now, here comes Noah Hawley, who has worked wonders mining established source material for new TV output, including Marvel’s ‘Legion’ and especially ‘Fargo’, which has evoked the Coen brothers’ movie while existing as its own beast.
He pulls off a similar trick here, respecting what has come before (or, er since this is a prequel, what will come after) with intensity, style and a healthy dose of humanity amongst the creature chaos.
Script and Direction
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Hawley, leading an accomplished writing team that has worked on shows including ‘WandaVision’ and his own ‘Fargo’, treads the line between evoking what has gone before –– including thematically –– and invention, deepening and layering the story.
The ‘Alien’ franchise is ripe with subtext beyond the xenomorphs, and Hawley and his team take full advantage of the stories’ exploration of artificial intelligence and giant corporations (both could not be timelier).
And TV running times mean there is much more scope to take time with the characters, the initial beats of the first episode graceful and almost operatic, fully tuned into the working class “space-trucker” vibe of the original movie. It’s always compelling and never dull, interspersed with dynamic moments of horror as a deep-space vessel’s crew discovers that transporting weird creatures never works out in humanity’s favor.
There is also a welcome, skillful approach to exposition, bringing those who might not be familiar with the storylines up to speed.
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Adarsh Gourav as Slightly. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Hawley also directs the first episode (Dana Gonzales handles the second and the lion’s share of the season), kicking things off with real style and epic feel for when the space ship comes roaring back to Earth, out of control.
The horror sequences of people being stalked by creatures (xenomorphs and some lethal new friends) really work well, delivering intensity while not losing focus on the performances.
Cast and Performances
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Essie Davis as Dame Sylvia. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Sydney Chandler, as Wendy a “Hybrid” (a human consciousness transferred into a synthetic body) is our main way in as the show starts, and Chandler brings a healthy blend of emotion and levity to the show. She’s compelling and watchable, and leads her ragtag band of fellow “Lost Boys” (and girls –– ‘Peter Pan’ is another thematic touchstone here) as they are drawn into the wider story, including a link to her past.
Alex Lawther as Hermit, a military medic working off his contract with the sprawling, powerful Prodigy corporation (one of franchise stalwart Weyland-Yutani’s big competitors and the funding/science behind the programme that created Wendy), gives a soulful, nuanced performance.
On the Prodigy front, company founder and resident genius/trillionaire Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) is also good value, a sort of Mark Zuckerberg type who is endlessly frustrated that no-one is on his level.
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured: Babou Ceesay as Morrow. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Elsewhere, Babou Ceesay is great as Morrow, the cyborg security chief of the crashing spaceship, whose concerns once things get out of hand are certainly not the safety of his crewmates, and he puts you in mind of Ian Holm‘s Ash from the original movie.
While what the production has done to Timothy Olyphant’s normally lustrous locks might be more horrifying than being stalked by a slavering beast, he’s typically excellent as the synth scientist at Prodigy who has become a father figure to Wendy.
Final Thoughts
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’. Pictured (L to R): Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Ade Edmondson as Atom Eins. Photo: Patrick Brown/FX.
Chalk another win up to Hawley’s list of TV shows you thought might not work, as ‘Alien: Earth’, at least on the basis of its initial episodes, is a triumph. Dread drips into emotion, the effects are top notch and the writer/director has mined something special here.
It’s not hyperbolic to suggest that this is a better extension of the ‘Alien’ universe than many previous attempts. Perhaps the xenomorphs are better off on the small screen for now.
Be careful watching it with friends, though –– everyone will hear you scream.
What’s the plot of ‘Alien: Earth’?
When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.
(Left) Timothy Olyphant in FX’s ‘Justified.’ (Right) 2012’s ‘Prometheus.’
Preview:
Timothy Olyphant will reunite with ‘Fargo’s Noah Hawley for his ‘Alien’ TV series.
The show will resume filming early next year.
On the big screen front, Cailee Spaeny has offered an update on Fede Alvarez’ ‘Alien’ movie.
Not content with ‘Fargo’ returning for a fifth season, Noah Hawley has been working on his ‘Alien’ prequel TV series for cable channel FX.
And it appears he’s recruited someone who has previously on the darkly comic crime series, as Timothy Olyphant is, according to Deadline, set to take one of the lead roles.
Olyphant, of course, appeared in Season 4 of ‘Fargo’, playing Dick ‘Deafy’ Wickware.
So far, very few details have been revealed about the new show. We do know that it’ll factor into the main ‘Alien’ storyline (so has no connection to the ‘Alien Vs. Predator’ movies, which were set on Earth and closer to present day) but located on Earth and taking place roughly 70 years in the future.
Thanks to the Deadline story, we now know that Olyphant is reportedly playing Kirsh, a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Sydney 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. We’d caution that no official confirmation has arrived for that.
With ‘Alien’ director (and franchise overseer) Ridley Scott giving his stamp of approval as executive producer, the series kicked off shooting in Thailand on July 19th, just four days into the actors’ strike.
It initially got around the SAG-AFTRA shutdown film utilizing members of the cast who are affiliated with the British actors’ union Equity. But after a little more than a month, it had to stop.
Now, Hawley and his team will apparently gear the cameras back up in early 2024.
‘Alien’ On the Big Screen
(L to R) Cailee Spaeny in ‘Priscilla.’ Credit: Sabrina Lantos.
Our TV screens are not the only places those crafty xenomorphs are invading. Fede Alvarez has been hard at work on ‘Alien: Romulus’, the latest movie in the franchise.
Now, according to lead Cailee Spaeny (who was back on the press circuit for ‘Priscilla’), we now know when the movie will take place.
“It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie. They brought the same team from ‘Aliens,’ the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours. So, getting to see the original design with the original people who have been working on these films for 45-plus years and has been so much of their life has been really incredible.”
‘Alien: Romulus’ will be in theaters on August 16 next year.
