Fargo’s Noah Hawley wanted to make an Alien mini-series

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Turning the Coen brothers' Oscar-winning 1996 film FARGO into a television series seemed like a terrible idea, but writer/executive producer Noah Hawley found a way to crack it. His Fargo series, which airs on FX, is a really good show that stands apart from the film it shares a title with while still retaining a level of Coen quirk. I haven't watched his other FX series, the Marvel Comics-inspired Legion, but based on the strength of Fargo I would have been very excited if Hawley had managed to get his hands on Fox's ALIEN franchise.

According to an article recently published on Deadline, Hawley and FX wanted to make a mini-series that would have been set in the universe of the ALIEN films, but the idea was shot down by Fox executive Emma Watts, who was not a fan of the idea of film properties being repurposed as TV projects.

Last month we heard the rumor that there were two live action Alien TV shows in the works, so there's a chance that Hawley and FX's attempt to get a mini-series going might have been one of the projects that stirred up the rumor.

The other Alien show said to be in the works would be a Hulu series executive produced by Ridley Scott. There's no word on how much truth there was to that part of the rumor, but the Deadline article does confirm that Scott is still working on some kind of follow-up to his ALIEN prequels PROMETHEUS and ALIEN: COVENANT.

Many projects that had been in development at Fox are on shaky ground now that the studio has been acquired by Disney. Disney's Alan Horn will hold greenlight power over Fox projects from now on, and the studio's output may be limited to just four theatrical features and four streaming projects a year.

We'll keep you updated whenever there's news on what the future may hold for the ALIEN franchise.