Disney ‘Alien’ Television Series Will Be A ‘Story About Inequality,’ Creator Says

A new “Alien” television series, based on the classic extraterrestrial horror movie franchise, will be a “story about inequality,” according to its creator Noah Hawley, even though the movie series is mostly about humans dodging the carnivorous alien from Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic.

Disney gained the rights to the “Alien” when it merged with Fox “now 20th Century Studios —  which gave them the rights” to the R-rated franchise, according to Disney news site, Inside the Magic. Disney has used the alien from “Alien” before, in at least two rides in Walt Disney World and, according to initial reports, was planning to hold on to the franchise, possibly so it could produce future feature-length films and a live-action television series.

According to Bounding Into Comics, that series is now slated to premiere on FX, and “FX chief John Landgraf claimed the series would be the first Alien ‘story set on Earth’” (though, as Bounding Into Comics points out, the iconic “Alien v. Predator” movie was set on Earth).

Last December, Disney revealed further details about the series, tweeting that “Alien is currently in development at FX Networks. The first TV series based on the classic film series is helmed by Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley.”

“Expect a scary thrill ride set not too far in the future here on Earth,” the company said.

Hawley recently sat down with Vanity Fair to flesh out the new “Alien” show — and it seems there may, as with many Disney properties, be a social justice element to the sci-fi horror series.

“Those are great monster movies, but they’re not just monster movies,” Hawley began. “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.”

He then suggests that the earlier movies are stories “about inequality” because they largely focus on “blue-collar” individuals sent into space by a major corporation. Hawley said he plans to explore the “inequality” that represents and how the disparity of wealth “we’re struggling with now” inevitably leads to a confrontation with a killer, parasitic alien species.

“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,” Hawley told Vanity Fair. “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 f*** each other over for a percentage.”

The new “Alien” live-action television program will, at least, keep its edge, according to reports. Although fans worried the series would see a decline into a more family-friendly territory after being acquired by Disney, those fears, at least seem to have been allayed.

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