The Alien franchise is currently going through another rethink since the Disney purchase of Fox, as we’ve heard about several television series being developed, with Ridley Scott involved in at least one of them. Indeed, there’s been talk of an Alien show on a streaming service for some time, as well as an animated version of Alien: Isolation, and today we’ve received word from our sources – the same ones who told us the leads of Ghostbusters 3 would be young teens well before they were cast – that the former will be an anthology series on Hulu, with each season taking place in a different part of the Alien universe.
The anthology idea has been considered for a while now and bears out the information we received from earlier this year. It’s unclear if it’ll play into the rebooted movies that Disney’s planning, but the format certainly provides freedom to explore new characters and time periods in the history of the franchise. Given that the new films will reportedly take place in the same continuity as earlier entries, albeit with all new characters, storylines and settings, we’d imagine there will be some crossover through prequels and sequels as well.
For now, though, we’re just excited to see how the aesthetic of Alien translates into an R-rated show on a streaming service. If Hulu and Disney are willing to provide the budget, we could be getting something very special and true to the early movies in tone. What this also probably means is that the Prometheus and Alien: Covenant series will be sidelined, at least for the time being.
Unfortunately, the development timeline for these different Alien projects is still a bit hazy, but for now, we can confirm that the Hulu show will indeed be done in an anthology format, with each season telling a new story set in the scary sci-fi universe that Ridley Scott first introduced us to all those years ago.