‘Alien’ TV show explores Weyland-Yutani’s tech rivals

We’re getting more insights into the tonal and plot direction of FX’s upcoming Alien TV series, a spinoff of the popular sci-fi/horror/action film franchise of the same name. Up until now, the show has had very little information surrounding it to the point where there isn’t even a release date set for it yet.

However, thanks to the series developer and novelist Noah Hawley’s recent interview, we’re now getting something of a a sense of what to expect from the series.

Esquire recently asked Hawley, who previously helmed the excellent FX TV adaption Fargo and the author of several books, about how making the show has been going after FX boss John Landgraf described it as a “beast.”

Hawley explained the world-building exercise is going great but going slowly, “given the scale of it.”

“Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us,” he said.

The showrunner went on to elucidate that the show will indeed take place on Earth and in the future but will center around competing technology companies’ bid for dominance in trail-blazing new advancements, similar to what went on with the fight for power over electricity during the latter part of the industrial revolution.

“At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla. Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is. In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence—but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?” Hawley said.

He went on to explain the show will explore the classic science fiction question: “does humanity deserve to survive?”

Given Hawley’s excellent track record with exploring soul-searching themes in his take on Fargo, we’re excited to see how this new Alien TV show pans out. We’ll be sure to provide you with all the updates on the show’s development just as soon as we have more information.