The Alien franchise has expanded in some fascinating ways over the last few decades. With films, video games, comic books, novels, and short films making up the majority of the franchise, it can be quite surprising that there’s never been an actual television series bearing the Alien name. Well, that’s set to change sooner than later. It’s been previously revealed that a live-action Alien series was in the works and now we know when filming is set to begin.
As revealed by FX chief John Landgraf, via Deadline, the Alien series is expected to begin filming next year. With this date in mind, fans will still have awhile to wait before they’ll get to see the wrath of the Xenomorph on the small screen. But it’s exciting to know that progress on the series is gradually moving ahead.
The setup for the series has been described as the following:
“The series will be the first Alien story set on Earth and will blend the horror of the original 1979 movie and the action of the 1986 James Cameron-directed sequel, Aliens. Ridley Scott will produce the series via his Scott Free banner.”
Due to the setting of the series, and the time in which it takes place, Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley will not be appearing. This means fans should only expect the Xenomorph to be the only returning character from the original films. It’ll be interesting, then, to see how they intend to expand the lore of the franchise with this new entry. Especially considering that it will be set on our very own Earth in a time period before the original 1979 classic.
The last entries in the film franchise were the films Prometheus and its recent follow-up Alien: Covenant. The two films were prequels to Ridley Scott’s original Alien and attempted to explain the origin of the Xenomorph creature. Although each of the films received mixed reception upon release, there’s still a massive appetite to see this franchise return to its former glory.
Fans can expect the Alien TV series, based on the iconic horror and sci-fi multimedia franchise, to likely premiere at some point in 2023. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for additional updates on the project as we have them.