FX's new Alien TV series is generating significant excitement, but it may have already missed the point of the entire franchise. Helmed by Fargo's Noah Hawley, Alien tells the story of a near-future Earth some 30 years before Ripley and the Nostromo crew's fateful voyage in 2122. As a result, The Alien TV series will be the first Alien franchise installment not to take place in space, throwing up several issues when compared with Ridley Scott's well-established Alien format. Currently set for an unspecified 2023 release date, FX's Alien series marks a change in direction for the iconic franchise, bringing the Xenomorph into an episodic format for the first time. Prior efforts to create Alien TV series have famously failed to gain traction, starting with 20th Century Fox and ABC's doomed Alien idea. Subsequent animated Alien TV show attempts have fared little better, with 1992's Operation: Aliens and 2007's Aliens: War Games both canceled in their infancy.

Despite being green-lit and getting further than its failed predecessors, The Alien TV series already looks to have missed the point of the entire franchise. Hawley's Alien show takes place on Earth, focusing on humanity's greed in a dystopian, futuristic landscape. As interesting as that sounds, it is a far cry indeed from the unique narrative elements that made Alien and its sequels so great to — the pure horror of facing Xenomorphs in claustrophobic conditions. While it's arguably too late for Sigourney Weaver's return to the Alien franchise, her encounters with the creatures can still be continued by the next generation of actors. However, the new Alien series is going in an entirely different direction. Here's a full explanation of why the Alien TV series appears to have missed the mark at this early stage, as well as what FX and Noah Hawley have said about their Alien series.

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What The Alien TV Series Will Be About

Alien TV Show Weyland-Yutani Rivals

Set 70 years in the near future, the Alien series will focus on the burgeoning Weyland-Yutani Corporation that forms the backbone of later Alien narratives. This unscrupulous, profiteering mega-corporation will be shown to dabble in deep space transport, planetary colonization, and terraforming. The Alien TV show will emphasize the company's corporate training programs, dispatches in space, and ulterior motives. This of course includes Weyland-Yutani's experimentation with Xenomorphs, which will undoubtedly lead to carnage.

What Noah Hawley Has Said About FX's Alien

Everything we know about the Aliens FX tv show

These narrative plans have been backed up by the Alien series' creator Noah Hawley, who confirmed (via Esquire) that the vast majority of the show will take place on a version of Earth. Hawley's Alien show, therefore, will focus on the inequalities and social divides ingrained in the futuristic Earth's culture, with Hawley stating: "you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. 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?" According to Hawley, this social commentary is derived from the original 1979 Alien's characters and their wider world, with the showrunner describing Alien as "this blue-collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically Waiting for Godot. They’re like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation."

Alongside his clear focus on the social commentary of both contemporary and futuristic cultures, Hawley’s Alien series is stated to mark a huge departure from what franchise fans have become accustomed to. In a separate Vanity Fair interview, Hawley expands on this approach, saying: “The Alien stories are always trapped. Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.” This new focus certainly marks a stark deviation from Ridley Scott's claustrophobic formula, with Hawley's Alien sounding like it will focus on big picture narratives instead of the insular, terrifying settings of Alien, Aliens, and Alien: Resurrection.

Why The Alien TV Series Has Already Missed The Point Of The Franchise

Alien 1979 Poster Art By Tsuneo Sanda

While original Alien director Ridley Scott's comments about the Alien series may be prematurely harsh, Noah Hawley's grand plans suggest that FX's show has already missed the point of the franchise, shedding what made Alien 1979 so compelling in favor of a more grandiose storyline. Undoubtedly, Ridley Scott's Alien remains the best franchise entry due to its insular setting and multi-faceted, intimate character portrayals. These human touches and close-quarters introspection conspire to make Alien a stunning exploration of claustrophobia and psychological trauma in a pressure cooker setting - practically impossible to replicate on Earth.

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As such, Hawley's Alien is already thinking too big in both its scope and attempts to create new Alien lore via Weyland-Yutani, making it feel like generic sci-fi TV fare from the get-go. While Hawley's ambition must be applauded, as must his willingness to shed the temptation of using original Alien characters, other aspects of his series plan fundamentally work against the nature of the franchise itself. Like Ridley Scott's future vision for the Alien franchiseexploring artificial intelligence — Hawley's Alien series plans just don't seem to grasp why the first movie is a classic. In particular, Hawley's comments on the Alien stories being "trapped" are the most concerning, with the inability to escape ratcheting up the Alien movies' tension and stakes in a way an open-world setting such as Earth simply cannot. Despite Hawley's assertion that the stakes will be higher in FX's Alien, the planet's fate feels like a hollow storyline that's already been played out in countless science-fiction entries before the new Alien TV series.

Even the Alien prequels in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant understood the franchise's reliance on insular settings, stranding their respective crews on harsh worlds with little to no chance of escape. Despite their flaws, both prequel movies successfully convey the dread aspect of the Alien franchise as hope slowly ebbs away from the human characters battling the Xenomorphs. The video game Alien: Isolation is another example of this formula achieving success, as the game is essentially an interactive experience featuring the original movie's core elements. Indeed, Alien's TV series has already missed the mark tonally for its own franchise, making Hawley's show feel more like a faceless sci-fi story with the Alien name tacked onto it rather than a direct prequel to Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 movie.

Why Is The Alien Franchise So Difficult To Adapt?

A xenomorph latches onto a ship in Alien Covenant

Despite a reputation as a tough IP to work with, the Alien franchise should be one of the easiest to adapt. The mistake being made by the Alien TV series, like every new installment since Aliens, is trying to put a new spin on an idea that really doesn't need one. The 1719 setting of 2022 movie Prey, even while breaking the rules of Alien's sister franchise Predator, proved it's possible to make huge alterations to an Alien or Predator movie while remaining true to what made the originals such classics. All the Alien franchise has to do is make a similar movie or show to Alien/Aliens, but with the horror and isolation magnified by contemporary special effects and a few decades of advances in cinematography.

While the deeper and broader sci-fi themes explored in recent installments are ambitious, they're not needed. There are many other franchises that tackle these socio-political themes far better than any Alien movie could. Any Alien should be primarily about Xenomorphs - the titular alien of Aliens. They're the unique selling point. In fact, the best Alien project since Alien and Aliens has been the first-person shooter game Alien: Isolation for this exact reason. If the Alien franchise intends to continue any future adaptation needs to embrace its space horror roots.

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