Noah Hawley’s Alien Show Plans to Keep Things Simple

For the last few years now, all we’ve really known of Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien show is exactly that, and that it’ll be more about the corporate side of the horror franchise. As a prequel, it’s got its work cut out for it, since it has to explain things, an issue the series has previously run into before with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

On a recent interview with KCRW’s The Business, Hawley was asked about if he’d be using any elements from those two specific films. Both prequels (which are closer to the franchise timeline of the show than the first Alien) revealed the Xenomorphs were created as a violent bioweapon by a race of people known as the Engineers. In referencing how the first Alien called the Xenomorph a “perfect life form,” Hawley indicated the Engineers would have no place in his show. To him, what made the Alien so scary to begin with was the idea of it existing for millions of years and naturally evolving to its current form, a read he wants to stick with. If that sounds like him spiting franchise director Ridley Scott, that doesn’t appear to be the case—Hawley revealed he and Scott spent time talking about “many, many elements” of the show to figure how everything could fit together.

“The idea that it was a bioweapon created half an hour ago…is just inherently less useful to me,” Hawley explained. A similar mindset is being used for the show’s eventual aesthetic: he wants to go back to the retro-futuristic vibes of the first two movies rather than the more advanced tech of seeker drones and sleek screens as seen in Prometheus and Covenant. “There’s something about that that doesn’t compute for me. […] There’s no holograms. The convenience of that beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me.”

Hawley’s previously talked about how he doesn’t want to mess with the original two Alien movies, and how they’re about humans being simultaneously threatened by the monstrous, primordial past and tech-heavy future. He reiterated that in this new interview, mentioning how the first movie asks, “Does humanity deserve to survive?” To that end, he wants his show to “explore humanity in all its good and evils” as the first films did. Hawley admitted it won’t be easy, given the past (and future) sequels, but he’s not too worried. “I think I have some tricks up my sleeve,” he slyly teased.

Alien will come to FX on Hulu in the near future.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.