It sounds like the idea is to take the ‘alien element’ out of Alien and then see what’s left. Is Noah Hawley serious? That would be like taking the ‘alien element’ out of Predator and seeing what was left. The story would have been a group of guys in a jungle setting completing a dirty job and then leaving…so where would that leave an Alien TV show? It would be, in a word, pointless, kind of like Disney even trying to make an Alien TV show, to begin with since the Mouse House is bound to do its thing with this popular franchise and effectively dampen it down to the point where there’s minimal, if any, blood and gore, and the xenomorphs might stop killing people, unless it’s off-screen, while the rest of the story might focus on the human element, which would be kind of a waste of time since the whole story of Alien absolutely NEEDS the alien element, otherwise it might as well be called something completely different. Even Prometheus and Covenant were not titled after the franchise, had something to do with the xenomorphs, no matter how much people detested both movies. A lot of folks appear to have forgotten that the buildup to the original movie if that was ever the intent, wasn’t going to be a slam-bam-thank you ma’am kind of process since there had to be some way to explain how the ship on LV-426 arrived in its location since it was not the xenomorphs homeworld as far as anyone knew.
Unfortunately, this is what Disney does. As easy as it is to applaud the Mouse House for what it does to take care of its fans, it’s just as easy to say ‘no mas’ when it comes to various ideas that just sound as though they’re going to be a cash grab and definitely sound as though they’re going to be the ruin of the franchise that Disney has taken hold of through one deal or another. It’s bad enough that another Predator movie is coming since unless Disney is ready to take a couple of big steps back and admit that they don’t know enough to continue such a franchise and should sub it out to someone that can get the job done, they’re bound to ruin the thing for a lot of fans. But putting the Alien franchise on TV is just another way to ruin something that people love. Just think of it, if this show did become a thing it might be that people would start looking at Covenant while thinking that it wasn’t so bad after all. It was a bit confusing through part of the movie to be certain, but financially it was a success since it earned its budget back and then some, but from a fan standpoint, it was hard to say that it was that popular. It’s true, the xenomorphs have changed throughout the years and there have been some truly embarrassing designs such as the human/xenomorph hybrid from Alien: Resurrection, but those seen in Covenant were at least alien through and through, and while they weren’t like the creature seen in the original movie or those seen the second movie, they were still deadly in appearance and better than the strange thing we saw at the end of Prometheus. For a TV show, it almost feels as though Disney might decide to do something stupid and alter the look of the xenomorphs so that they don’t scare the hell out of people.
The fact that the creator of Fargo, Noah Hawley, is being approached for this project is reason to worry since someone that hasn’t done anything like this isn’t bound to pick up the nuances of the franchise that quickly unless the fans get inordinately lucky. Ridley Scott apparently has another sequel already in mind and has stated that things will continue to evolve, but if a TV show is put in motion for this franchise it feels as though it could be a truly bad idea since it doesn’t strike a lot of people as something that should happen. The Alien and Predator franchises have remained on the big screen for a long time now, and it feels as though this is where they should stay if only because breaking their stories down into chapters might not be the worst idea, but it would be better to see them as the kind of series that The Mandalorian has become, with someone that has a history with the franchise doing the writing, and possibly the directing. No offense to Noah Hawley, but sometimes a franchise really needs those that understand what the job calls for, and the story of Alien needs someone that’s been around it long enough to take the reins if such a thing is bound to happen.
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