The first three episodes of Apple TV+'s Invasion premiere October 22 on the streaming service. Created and written by Simon Kinberg (X-Men franchise), the sci-fi series puts a human spin on the story of an alien invasion following an alien invasion through different perspectives from around the world. Invasion stars Shamier Anderson, Golshifteh Farahani, Sam Neill, Firas Nassar, Shioli Kutsuna, and Billy Barratt.
Kinberg spoke with Screen Rant about how Invasion is different from other alien stories, the future of the series, and how it compares to his other projects.
Screen Rant: This show is quite different from the alien invasions we've seen on screen in the past. Can you tell me about the core of this story and what the inspiration for Invasion is?
Simon Kinberg: It is very different than other alien invasion movies, shows, even novels in many ways because it's global. I think we're used to seeing alien invasion shows told from a singular perspective and most usually an American perspective. It's different because, and this was really the inspiration or the sort of north star for me, it's really character-driven. It is really an emotional, nuanced, complex show about human beings more than it is, or as much as it is about aliens. [I] really wanted people to care about, relate to, understand, [and] connect to these characters before aliens invaded their lives.
I think in many ways, the inspiration for the show, as you ask, is [to] have the show be about people who are alienated already before the aliens show up - alienated from themselves, alienated from their families, perhaps alienated from their cultures. I thought that was something I just had never seen before.
I also had never seen something that felt like it was a real mashup of hard science fiction with really patient, emotional drama. When I went into Apple and started talking about the show I was like, "It's basically War of the Worlds meets Babel." And you've got to really believe in these characters and in their situations enough so that the alien invasion doesn't feel fake. It feels as real as what we went through in 2020.
A lot of movies with alien invasions you see people have this really instant reaction where there's an explosion and they're like, "Ahh, aliens!" I like the realistic thinking that it takes a while for people to realize, "Oh, this isn't what we think it is." Can you tell me about that thinking?
Simon Kinberg: I think what draws us to science fiction is what we don't know. I think it is that when you think about what's on the horizon, what's that beyond our universe, what's beyond our capacity to even cognize what's among us - whether it's another dimension that we can't see, the 90% of our brains, we can't use, et cetera, et cetera - I think the mystery of life is what fuels science fiction. And it is what fuels this show.
There is a mystery to the unraveling of what is happening. Why are these kids getting nosebleeds? Why is it happening in certain places and not others? What do they want, why are they here? Not just here to destroy Earth and kill everybody like we've seen and blow up monuments like we've seen in other movies and shows. They have their own complex reason that's as complex as our lives, or more complex and it's unknowable.
I think it would take me a long, long time to figure it out. I don't know anything about science other than the experts I talk to and even they are like, "The truth about a true alien intelligence, meaning not just like microbes, but to the alien intelligence who will come to earth would be unknowable." It would be something that wouldn't conform to little green men speaking in a language that we understand.
That's what I wanted to explore on the show. I wanted to explore that almost eerie feeling of unknowability as much as there was also the terror of cities being destroyed and we can't go home because our houses are no longer safe.
So what does your plan look like for this series? Do you have it completely mapped out at this point?
Simon Kinberg: I do have a sense of how many seasons I would like and I do have it, I guess I would say mapped out. I mean, not a detailed map, but mapped out in terms of where I see the aliens going, where their plot goes, what they want, how they achieve it, what happens when they achieve it. I have a clear sense of that, and sort of how that plays out over seasons.
I have, I think equally, if not, more importantly, a sense of how to arc these characters, a sense of how to connect these characters. But you know, whether or not I get to tell all that is out of my hands and ultimately in the audience's and Apple's hands.
The look and feel of this series is just massive. And I know you're no stranger to doing things on this massive scale. How does Invasion compare to large blockbusters you've done before?
Simon Kinberg: It's very similar. It's obviously a longer form, so it's 10 hours of storytelling versus two hours of storytelling. But I would say the X-Men movies really prepared me for it because one, they were there obviously ensemble movies [and] this is an ensemble. And two, in a way X-Men, working on a franchise, is a little bit like working on a television show in that you are telling multiple stories over multiple years. You're following these characters, it's serialized in a way.
It's like going from Professor Xavier [in] X-Men: First Class to Professor Xavier in Days of Future Past. It's like, okay, you've completely created a new character for him. Or the Michael Fassbender Magneto of Days of Future Past to [X-Men] Apocalypse. So there is a serialized nature to that.
I think what was different for me was not the scale because I am somewhat used to that, but I've never shot in as many places, even on the mega movies like X-Men movies or The Martian. We were primarily single location based like London, or somewhere in Canada, whereas this, we shot in New York, London, Manchester, Tokyo, Morocco, and really shot in those places, spent time in those places. I've never done that before on a film.
So that was really, really exciting and I think it shows. I think that's part of the cinematic feel of the show is that she's really walking through Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo; that's not a plate or a splinter unit that's sent there with the actress or even without the actress, in some cases. I've just never been in as many places so that felt really special and it felt like it lent to the reality of the show.
Invasion premieres October 22 on Apple TV+ with new episodes available every Friday.