If all goes according to plan, 2024 should be a rich year for fans of the Alien franchise. In August, Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus is scheduled to arrive in theaters, and after years of waiting, Noah Hawley's Alien TV series is finally scheduled to go into production. In regards to the latter, there are still a lot of mysteries lingering, but the most recent comments about it from star David Rysdahl instantly make me curiouser about how the show is going to add to the existing canon.
The actor recently spoke with TV Insider about what's being cooked up for the first small screen adventure featuring the iconic xenomorphs, and Rysdahl linked the work that's being done on the upcoming science-fiction show with what Noah Hawley has been doing for the past few years with the critically beloved FX series Fargo. Speaking to how the Alien series will be a part of the larger franchise, he said,
Noah is doing a similar thing with what he did with Fargo. Taking the DNA of something — and what is Fargo dealing with and what is Alien dealing with at a primal level — through Noah’s lens, and then building it off of that. … I think people will be happy about it.
David Rysdahl has a key supporting role on Fargo Season 5, so he is certainly speaking as an authority.
Fans of the FX show will note that the TV series Fargo has a very special relationship with the 1996 movie on which it is based. The series, which unfolds as a season-to-season anthology, features plot elements, settings, and characters that connect to the original feature from Joel and Ethan Coen, but it is also set within the same continuity. Adding in extra layers, it also regularly riffs on all of the movies in the Coen brothers' filmography, from Miller's Crossing and Blood Simple to The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski.
The way in which Fargo weaves all of those threads together is marvelous to behold, and the idea of Noah Hawley cooking up something similar for his Alien series is practically mouth-watering.
Set to star in the show alongside Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Timothy Olyphant, and Kit Young (as a character named "Tootles"), David Rysdahl seems to be beside himself regarding his opportunity to be in Alien. He explained in the recent interview,
I mean, if you would’ve told me two years ago that I would’ve been in Fargo and then in Alien, I would’ve been like, ‘What are you on? So the idea that I get to [star in these shows]… I mean, I grew up on both movies and just to be part of that universe to step on those sets, it’s just kind of a dream come true.
Both Alien and Aliens are titles among the best sci-fi movies of all time, so there's a big legacy to live up to, but everything we've heard about the show instills confidence.
We may not end up seeing Alien premiere on FX in the next 12 months, but if you're curious about all of the programming set to show up this year, check out our 2024 TV Schedule.
