When Noah Hawley started working on what would become “Alien: Earth,” he knew it was vital to capture the shock and horror audiences first felt when they saw Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic. That’s a tall order considering the “Alien” franchise has gutted all of the Xenomorph’s surprises over the course of seven films and two crossover movies.
“I’ve managed somehow to have this niche of reinventing classic movies as television shows. If I have a skill at it, it’s in understanding what the original movie made me feel and why,” Hawley told a group of reporters in May that included TheWrap. “Seven movies later, there’s no discovery or mystery in the life cycle of this creature, so that feeling the audience has is unavailable to me, which is why I felt I had to introduce new creatures.”
“Ridley, candidly, his biggest concern for Noah and this series was the ambition to build out these other creatures — the necessity of that but also just how steep that challenge is to pull off in a way that is impactful but also that really taps into your imagination,” said David W. Zucker, “Alien: Earth” executive producer and chief creative officer for Scott Free.
Like its predecessor, “Alien: Earth” doesn’t explain how these new creepy crawlies reproduce, what they eat or what their goals are. All that the show communicates is that they’re the last thing you want crash landing on Earth. Yet somehow that’s the least of the problems within this sci-fi thriller.
Set two years before the events of “Alien,” the FX series follows Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a young girl who has become the world’s first hybrid — people who have their consciousnesses transferred to a synthetic body. When a space vessel carrying several otherworldly specimen crash lands on Earth, Wendy and her ragtag group of hybrids sweep onto the scene to help save the day. But as they’re forced to contend with the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, they also have to deal with a swatch of conglomerates that may be as dangerous as anything that hatches from a mysterious egg.
“One of the reasons that ‘Alien’ was so exciting to me to adapt was that it’s not just a monster movie. It’s that moment [in the first movie] where Ash is revealed to be an Android,” Hawley said. “You realize that humanity is trapped between this parasitic primordial past and the AI future, and they’re both trying to kill us.”
Hawley, who first started working on what would become “Alien: Earth” in 2018, was inspired by the 19th century when it came to constructing his show’s mysterious ruling corporations. He pointed to the battle over electricity between Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.
“It certainly seems like we’re in a race for a global monopoly. There’s usually a last step, which is a few players left all competing,” Hawley explained. “I thought, ‘What if we make it that moment, technologically, of what’s next for humanity?’”
That idea combined with his desire to explore this universe through the eyes of children led to the creation of this show’s hybrids. Though Chandler’s Wendy looks like a woman in her late 20s or early 30s, mentally and emotionally, she’s about 12 years old. A huge part of the “Alien” franchise has always been the question of whether or not humanity is even worth saving.
“Let the children navigate the discovery both of what these creatures are and then, also, what it means to be a grownup on some level,” Hawley explained.
Though Hawley has yet to meet the 87-year-old Scott in person, the iconic director gave the series his blessing. Both Hawley and Zucker said that Scott, who is an executive producer on the show, weighed in on dailies as well as cuts of different episodes. Zucker noted Scott was especially impressed by the show’s direction and its exact recreations of his original sets, such as the mess hall and comms room.
“I sent him some shots when he was shooting production in Hungary, and he was just, ‘Well, f–k me. I built that, and it’s still there all these years later,’” Zucker said. “One of the things among many I know he’s grateful to Noah about is, in the credits, there’s acknowledgment for some of those original designers who put that ship set together.”
“Alien: Earth” airs new episodes Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FX and Hulu.
