One of the stars of FX’s Alien has teased how the show will approach the original 1979 science fiction classic of the same name. So far, aside from the fact that the show will be a prequel set three decades before the events of the movie, many details of its plot have been kept under wraps. However, it is known that Sydney Chandler will star as Wendy, who has a childlike brain and an adult body, alongside Timothy Olyphant (as Wendy’s synth caretaker Kirsh), Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, Adarsh Gourav, and Kit Young.
The Hollywood Reporter recently interviewed actor David Rysdahl, who is also part of the cast of the upcoming Alien show. When asked to share a little bit about the project, he teased that the show’s writer-director Noah Hawley is bringing a similar approach to what he did with the television adaptation of the Coen Brothers’ movie Fargo. Rysdahl shared that the show will be “very different but very exciting,” retaining a link to the original movie’s themes and overall DNA. Read his full quote below:
Noah [Hawley], in a similar fashion to Fargo, takes the [1979 Alien] movie and asks, “What’s the DNA of this? What’s the world perspective? What themes are we tackling? What was the original intent of this movie? Let me see if I can play with that in a new way.” So he’s doing a really interesting job of that on Alien, and it’s going to be a very different but very exciting view of what the original movie was.
A New Approach To Alien Makes Perfect Sense
The show’s new direction might seem like a surprise at first glance, but it is actually entirely in keeping with the Alien movies. So far, each of the movies has had an entirely different approach to the same basic material, swapping tones and even genres quite frequently. While they all pluck elements from the original movie – especially the monstrous Xenomorph and its life cycle – they have already carved their own paths that will leave the show open to freely explore new directions.
This has been the case ever since the movie’s first sequel, 1986’s Aliens, took on a more action-packed approach under the auspices of new director James Cameron. Since then, the sequels that followed have largely pursued entirely new creative directions. This includes the dark nihilism of 1992’s Alien 3, the goofier sci-fi approach of 1997’s Alien: Resurrection, and the more contemporary action-horror atmosphere found in the 2004 crossover Alien vs. Predator.
Ultimately, the new FX show will probably not be the wildest swing the franchise has seen thus far. It seems probable that, no matter how far afield it goes, it will be more closely tied to the 1979 movie than original director Ridley Scott’s 2012 movie Prometheus turned out to be. While the prequel featured many connections to the overarching world of the original movie, it didn’t include the full-grown Alien Xenomorph at all, something that seems very likely to be present in the show for at least one episode.
