For several years there have been rumours of an Alien-related television show, though so far they’ve come to (astro-)nought. This week’s latest information seemed to suggest plans to bring it to the hulu platform, but offered very few specifics.
HN Entertainment‘s site claims that they have an exclusive: a source that has confirmed that Ridley’s company Scott Free, with the director likely acting as an executive producer, will oversee at least one production for hulu, possibly even two shows. A previously rumoured FOX television project was said to deal with the idea of filling in some of the back-story of the ill-fated LV-426 from the original film, but that the current hulu ventures might expand the franchise in other directions.
For a franchise that has had mixed results at the cinematic box-office in recent years, we certainly wouldn’t rule out the idea of an Alien-related series (the costs of tv productions are coming down at the same time better budgets are being agreed and expert talent brought on to projects) but it is a concept that relies heavily on its extra-terrestrial antagonist and that wouldn’t come cheap and might equally be problematic on a narrative level.
This week’s ‘news’ comes a few months after a similar, previous rumour that Netflix could be the home for a tv deal but at a time when the Fox acquisition by Disney is still ongoing (and creating a lot of questions about previously announced projects never mind new ones….) it seems questionable that anything like a tentpole series such as an Alien property would be having real momentum until the dust settles. Equally, there does appear to be a lot of speculation involved and extrapolated from the thinnest of comments for the latest news rather than anything particularly substantial or genuinely new.
That being said, a series of this type may well happen at some point and will likely have real momentum if and when it does… and you’ll hear people scream about it, even in space.
