Posted in: FX, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: alien, fx networks, noah hawley, preview

Alien: Sydney Chandler Reportedly Set to Lead Noah Hawley, FX Series

Sydney Chandler (Pistol, Sugar) has reportedly been cast in the lead role of FX and Noah Hawley's (Fargo) upcoming Alien series.

The last time we checked in on how things were going with Noah Hawley's series take on the "Alien" franchise, it was January 2023, and FX Networks Chairman John Landgraf confirmed that Hawley was "in active preproduction on 'Alien;' he's written scripts" – adding, "I think he's meeting with his production designer in Austin this weekend, gearing up for production this year after he completes the fifth season of 'Fargo.'" Well, it looks like Hawley's moved onto the casting phase because we're learning that Sydney Chandler (Pistol, Sugar) has been cast in the lead role (reported by Variety). While it's set to take place on Earth in a not-too-distant future, no other plot or character details have been released.

In an interview with Vanity Fair from Summer 2021, Hawley offered some early insight into the themes that the series will be taking a deep dive into:

Hawley's Getting Inspiration from The Past: "What's next for me, it looks like, is [an] Alien series for FX, taking on that franchise and those amazing films by Ridley Scott and James Cameron and David Fincher. Those are great monster movies, but they're not just monster movies. They're about humanity trapped between our primordial, parasitic past and our artificial intelligence future—and they're both trying to kill us. Here you have human beings and they can't go forward and they can't go back. So I find that really interesting."

This Not a "Ripley Story" & Things Are Going To Open Up A Bit: "It's not a Ripley story. She's one of the great characters of all time, and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don't want to mess with it. It's a story that's set on Earth also. The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of 'What happens if you can't contain it?' are more immediate."

Hawley Looks to Continue the Films' "Inequality" Themes: "You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how '70s a movie it is, and how it's really this blue-collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically 'Waiting for Godot.' They're like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation. The second movie is such an '80s movie, but it's still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work."

For Hawley, That Means a Focus on the Dangers Human Represent as Well as Aliens: "In mine, you're also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we're struggling with now isn't resolved. If we as a society can't figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what's going to happen to us? There's that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, 'I don't know which species is worse. At least they don't fuck each other over for a percentage.'"

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