Noah Hawley is working on an Alien TV series for Disney that’ll start shooting in 2023. But Ridley Scott is rumored to be working on one as well – so what the hell is going on?

A report online claims that Disney has commissioned Ridley Scott to produce, write, and direct his very own Alien TV series, a series that would presumably rival the now confirmed and soon-to-be hitting production Alien TV series from Fargo’s Noah Hawley.

It is worth pointing out that neither Disney nor Ridley Scott has confirmed this news. Ridley Scott has confirmed, however, that a new Alien film is in the works. The as yet untitled project will be written and directed by Fede Alvarez, the creative force behind “Don’t Breathe”, with Scott undertaking producer duties.

Is Ridley Scott Making An Alien TV Series?

So where did all these rumors about a Ridley Scott Alien TV series start? Three words: Giant Freakin Robot – a film and TV blog. Here’s the extract from the blog that started all the rumors you’re not seeing online:

The Alien franchise is going through a bit of a revival. It had already been announced that a new series was being worked on for FX. This new series, however, has fallen under heavy criticism. The biggest criticism is that the show is going to be set on Earth, which is a far cry from the Ridley Scott format that had been established in the 1970s. This might have been the deciding factor for the long-time director and producer to get involved, as we can happily report through our trusted and proven sources that Ridley Scott is now working on his own Alien series for Hulu, which will be set in space.

OK, so first thing’s first: the source is unnamed. Second, the logic behind the rumor is shaky at best. Are we supposed to believe that a few disgruntled neckbeards, moaning about Hawley’s Alien project in forums on the web, caused Disney to do a complete 180 and commission a separate multi-million dollar project with Scott at its helm?

Yeah, probably not. I think what might have happened here is that the source – if there ever was one – got their wires crossed. Ridley Scott does have a new Alien project in the works. But it is not a TV series. It’s a film, and he’s not directing or writing either. Instead, he’ll be acting as a producer with Don’t Breathe’s Fede Alvarez on writing and directing duties.

Oh, and as a nice aside: the new Alien film WILL NOT follow the events of Ridley Scott’s much-hated Covenant movie.

What About The New Alien Film?

Given how well PREY was received, it seems appropriate for Disney to hand over the reins for the new Alien film to a younger, proven director. Ridley Scott, now in his 80s, showed with Prometheus and Covenant that perhaps he wasn’t the man to take the franchise forwards which is a nice way of saying he basically ruined what should have been a massive comeback for the franchise.

Fede Alvarez has plenty of potential too. Don’t Breathe was a fantastic, tight film with plenty of scares and claustrophobia, just like the original Alien film. Giving Alvarez complete control over both the writing and direction of the new Alien film, based on what we saw Dan Trachtenberg pull off with PREY, could well be just what the Alien franchise needs to get it restarted properly.

With respect to themes, Ridley Scott’s last two films, despite their overall execution, appeared promising at first – the genesis of the xenomorph, where it came from, and who created it are all very interesting topics. But the films’ inability to answer these questions in a satisfying manner resulted in a rather lackluster payoff in both films. The AI stuff was interesting, sure, but it would probably have been more at home in a Blade Runner TV series.

After watching both films recently, I was just left thinking that maybe Ridley didn’t really know what to do with the franchise anymore which is why it descended into some kind of sci-fi/theological saga. The alien, the thing everybody wanted to see more of, was just sidelined more or less entirely for the first film and then brought to life in a completely stupid manner in the sequel, Covenant.

In PREY, Trachtenberg proved that the predator could actually be interesting again, even when that character had been written off by most people. The alien is currently facing a similar fate. But this is not the alien’s fault – it is still a terrifying beast. It’s just been failed by poor writing and a slew of terrible films.

Alvarez, a fairly new, talented writer/director, has the potential to fix all of this. He can make the beast scary again. And I’m glad it is him, not Ridley, that is helming this new Alien film. All he needs to do is stick to the classic formula for an alien movie: keep it simple, make it violent and gory, and create characters that people actually care about – this was what made Alien and Aliens so good.

And if Alvarez’s film goes bad, at least we have Noah Hawley’s Alien TV series to look forward to.