Ridley Scott’s original 1979 horror sci-fi hybrid Alien has withstood the test of time, despite a few missteps in the franchise. Fans are now forgiving of their favorite acid-blooded Xenomorph, even after appearing in the B-movie you could hardly see titled Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

The terrifying core at the heart of the Alien franchise was rejuvenated by Prometheus with its epic storytelling and labyrinthian mythology. It proved there was still an apatite to go further down the rabbit hole conceived so brilliantly by screenwriter Dan O’Bannon with H.R. Giger’s wildly imaginative designs and Ridley Scott’s grand filmmaking pipeline.

So, now that FX has confirmed an upcoming prequel Alien series from Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) is in development, what should we expect from the serialized sci-fi drama? Let’s ponder the cosmic possibilities even if we’re now limited to an android’s biological experiment.

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Taking a Cue From James Cameron

     20th Century Fox

What has been revealed by showrunner Noah Hawley is that the series will be taking place on earth and feature themes of class warfare. The powerful Weyland-Yutani Corporation will likely be leaning on some military grunts to clean up their unethical biomechanical disasters. This potentially leaves Ridley Scott’s last entry alone – Alien: Covenant (2017) – allowing it to exist in a separate or congruent timeline.

The series will likely be taking heavy cues from James Cameron’s Aliens, often regarded as the best of the franchise. Still, there may be more to explore on the cosmic side of things. What the original did so well was to plant seeds with brilliant set pieces, setting the foundation for a full exploration into the creation of the human race itself, and the irony brought forth in our desire to play God by creating artificial intelligence.

What seems to work best in the Alien franchise is when they find that perfect balance of sci-fi, action, and horror. James Cameron is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. While aspiring to mold the series around his style is admirable, Hawley and crew may want to ensure they’re keeping a bird’s eye view on the franchise as a whole. There’s an opportunity here to do what Don Mancini did so well with his Chucky franchise, which was to validate all of it.

AVP Counts

While dismissing the existence of the Aliens vs. Predator films may seem like the right thing to do from a creative standpoint, there are more fans this alienates (no pun intended) than studio executives may realize. The popcorn flair of seeing 20th Century Studio’s most iconic aliens go head-to-head is iconic and meaningful to those entrenched in the world of pop culture.

This doesn’t necessarily mean fans want Predator showing up to give the humans a hand in battling Xenomorphs. But, rather, embracing potential links to the other franchise could ignite more interest than dismissing them all together, which is what you would expect from the pretentious nature of most artists being handed the keys to the Alien kingdom.

Fans of Predator can look forward to Prey being released later this year on Hulu, which will be the fifth standalone entry in the franchise that married Aliens and Rambo so well.

Alien Cheese Isn’t Bad

Let’s not forget that 1997’s Alien: Resurrection happened. Love it or hate it, the movie is a corn-dog compared to Ridley Scott’s original, or even David Fincher’s misguided masterpiece, Alien 3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film has aged fairly well, and its flair for humor and silly antics brought something fresh into the fascinating Alien universe.

Sometimes a little style and color go a long way. Especially when imagining the kind of characters and weird scenarios we may find ourselves within in the land of H.R. Giger dragons and creation myths involving ancient aliens and white-blooded robots. Still, just the notion of an Alien movie from the director of Amélie is worthy of laughing out loud!

Will Alien: Covenant Continue?

While 2017’s Alien: Covenant wasn’t perfect, it did a reasonably good job getting the franchise back on track while also resolving the intimidatingly complex storyline Prometheus wove with all its ambiguity and promise. Some may argue it closed too many doors and fell back on the lowest common denominator in the third act, becoming somewhat redundant. Still, it had been long enough since we’d seen a crew getting plucked off one by one as a lone Xenomorph stocked a ship.

David’s (Michael Fassbender) trickery at the end served up a nice foundation for yet another entry down Ridley’s rabbit hole should the opportunity arise. With Fox now merged with Disney, it will be interesting to see how this may affect the tone of the Alien franchise.