Noah Hawley’s ‘Alien’ Series Likely Arrives In 2023; FX Calls It A “Beast” & Aware Of Its “Cinematic Universe” Placement

The Television Critics Association summer tour is underway, and FX Network chief John Landgraf has been sharing info at his presentation all day. We know that “What We Do In The Shadows” has been renewed for a fourth season, and “American Horror Stories” has been renewed for season two. In addition, FX is trying to fight hard to stay in the Ryan Murphy business, given he’s expanded into Netflix. The cable and streamer announced “American Love Story” and “American Sports Story” anthology series are in development along with “Studio 54: American Crime Story.” But that’s not all; FX is clearly also in the Noah Hawley business, the creator of “Fargo.” And today, we received some updates on the FX “Alien” series that Hawley is developing.

READ MORE: Noah Hawley Says His ‘Alien’ FX Series Is “A Story About Inequality”

For one, Landgraf said the series would be “very grounded” and is highly attuned to all the franchise films that came before it. “I think Noah’s very conscious of the fact that there’s a cinematic universe,” Landgraf said (via Deadline). Presumably saying the series would be faithful to what filmmakers like Ridley Scott and James Cameron had built, Landgraf added the series would bring “some inventiveness and originality that is uniquely Noah. “I think you’ll also see that the show will feel like a part of the cinematic universe you’re familiar with in terms of Alien,” he added.

READ MORE: ‘Alien’: Noah Hawley and Ridley Scott Team For Original Series Set On Earth For FX on Hulu

The FX exec called the series “a beast … a really big, world-building exercise” and added. “I have optimism that that show may well roll out in 2023. It will probably roll out 2023, but we want to get it right.” So that sounds like 2023 at the earliest?

READ MORE: Noah Hawley Breaks Down His ‘Alien’ TV Series Idea & Compares It To ‘Legion’

“Alien” on FX was announced in December during the Disney Investor Day, with Ridley Scott on board as a producer which isn’t a surprise. These days, no “Alien” stories get told without Scott’s OK seemingly and he’s rumored to be the one to have killed Neill Blomkamp‘s “Alien 5” series because he was worried about it interfering with his “Prometheus” prequel franchise (which has since been seemingly killed).

In July, Hawley told Vanity Fair that the series would “not [be] a Ripley story,” referring to Sigourney Weaver’s character from the film series because it was already told, and he did not “want to mess with it.” He also added that the series would deal with the consequences of “inequality,” a theme seemingly threaded through the series with the disposable grunts on the ground fighting aliens and the Weyland Corporation in the background always trying to profit from the possibilities of their alien DNA and mysterious origins.