Summary
The news that FX’sAlienTV show will focus on Weyland-Yutani means the project is likely to inevitably reignite a massive controversy about the franchise’s most contentious entries.FX’sAlienTV showwill open up the world of the franchise, expanding its scope. Until now,theAlienmovies mostlyfocused on isolated crews who encountered the Xenomorph, whether it was the space truckers of 1979’s originalAlienor the doomed heroes of 2017’sAlien: Covenant. Although 2012’s divisive prequelPrometheusattempted to touch on bigger themes like the origins of humanity, its cast and locations remained minimal.
FX’sAlienTV show is likely to change this due to the nature of the medium. Where2024’s Alien rebootAlien: Romuluswill be a self-contained claustrophobic horror in the vein of the original movie, the purpose of anAlienTV show is to flesh out the fictional world of the series.Fargoshowrunner Noah Hawley’s series has more time to explore the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in more depth, and actor Sandra Yi Sencindiver toldVarietythat the show would feature a lot of world-building that expands the franchise’s fictional universe. However, this could cause a problem.
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Before Alien: Romulus arrives viewers should seek out a similarly grim, brutal sci-fi horror from 2017 that has been underrated since its release.
FX’s Alien Story Can Reinstate Alien Vs Predator
Alien Vs Predator’s Weyland-Yutani Backstory May Become Canon (Again)
The rumors thatFX’sAlienseries will reportedly focus on Weyland-Yutani and the invention of android life on Earthmay not bode well for the show. After all, the only otherAlieninstallments set on Earth are the infamously badAlien Vs Predatormovies. If the show revolves around the shady corporation and their knowledge of the Xenomorph, this implies thatAlien Vs Predatorand its sequelAlien Vs Predator: Requiemare both canon again. Unless Hawley’s show offers an alternative explanation for how the company discovers the existence of Xenomorphs, the franchise’s worst movies may become relevant again.
2004’sAlien Vs Predatorwas criticised for many issues, including its plodding pacing and deluge of unnecessary backstory.
Not a lot is known aboutHawley’s upcoming FXAlienshow, but this bodes badly for its story. 2004’sAlien Vs Predatorwas criticised for many issues, including its plodding pacing and deluge of unnecessary backstory. The scare-free effort over-explained the history of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in its opening act before finally revealing the Xenomorph after almost an hour of screen time. Almost all the main characters were left dead by the end, but the corporation did have definitive proof of the Xenomorph’s existence. 2007’sAlien Vs Predator: Requiemthen complicated this storyline further.
SinceAlien Vs Predator’s events predate those of FX’s show, it will be tough for the series to simply ignore them.
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Alien Vs Predator: Requiemdropped its predecessor’s connections to Weyland-Yutani, depicting Xenomorphs and Predators attacking a small American town in the mid-’00s. Although Hawley’s show might simply ignore the events of this sequel, it is hard to deny thatAlien Vs Predator’s storyline would make sense for FX’sAlienshow. Both the series and the movie are set on Earth and, sinceAlien Vs Predator’s events predate those of FX’s show, it will be tough for the series to simply ignore them. The movie also answers the question of how the corporation first encounteredtheAlienfranchise’s Xenomorph.
FollowingAlien Vs Predator’s storyline could allow Hawley’s show to explain that the Weyland-Yutani corporation gained knowledge of the Xenomorphs from Charles Weyland’s doomed Antarctic mission. This would mean that the company could have been working on utilizing the Xenomorph as a bioweapon for some time before the series begins, meaning they may already have numerous Xenomorphs in storage. However, reinstating the events ofAlien Vs Predatorisn’t a straightforward option for the series. This raises more questions than it answers, and some are complicated canon problems that the franchise will likely struggle to unknot.
FX’sAlienshow could use the backstory provided byAlien Vs Predatoras an easy way to explain how Weyland-Yutani first acquired the Xenomorph.
Reinstating Alien Vs Predator Is A Problem For The Alien Series
The Alien Vs Predator Movies Complicated The Franchise’s Story
Prometheuseffectively retconned the events ofAlien Vs Predatorwhen the prequel introduced Peter Weyland, a new founder and CEO of Weyland-Yutani. To make things more complicated,Alien: Covenantseemingly implied that David invented the original Xenomorph through his twisted experiments. In contrast,Alien Vs Predator’s canonsays that the Xenomorphs existed long before the company and were hunted by Predators on Earth for millennia. This raises the even more complicated question of whether Predators exist within the world of FX’sAlienshow.
FX’sAlienshow could use the backstory provided byAlien Vs Predatoras an easy way to explain how Weyland-Yutani first acquired the Xenomorph. However, this would open up a whole host of other subsequent questions that the series may struggles to answer. The chronology and canon of the franchise are more complicated than it seems at first glance, meaning there is a good chance the show should instead ignore this backstory. In doing so, FX’sAlienTV show may save itself from a lot of headaches down the line.
