“Alien Earth” creator Noah Hawley admits he still hasn’t heard if the series is coming back for season 2 but he left the show on a cliffhanger in hopes that there’s more to come …
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ALIEN EARTH EPISODE 8 ‘THE REAL MONSTERS’
“Now we rule”
The ending of “Alien Earth” season 1 left as many questions as answers when it comes to the potential future of this series after “Fargo” creator Noah Hawley put his own unique spin on the first ever episodic version of the classic “Alien” story that started all the way back in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s classic.
In the season finale titled “The Real Monsters,” Wendy realized her full potential when she effectively took over Prodigy’s headquarters, released all of the other children and captured Boy Kavalier along with all of the other major threats against the hybrids. She also summoned the Xenomorphs to the holding cell where she housed Boy Kavalier along with his synths and the cyborg Morrow, who was attempting to steal back the alien life forms he helped capture on board the USS Maginot — a Weyland-Yutani research vessel.
Of course, Wendy’s triumph — where she also rescued her brother Joe — came just as Weyland-Yutani forces were about to invade the Prodigy city in hopes of not only taking down Boy Kavalier but taking back the various aliens the Maginot captured, which included several Xenomorph eggs.
The closing scene with Wendy telling Boy Kavalier that the hybrids were now in charge is only a teaser for what could potentially happen in season 2 but Hawley admits he’s still awaiting word on that. The same goes for his overall story, which he first teased as possibly going as far as five seasons when the show initially launched.
“I don’t have a destination in mind,” Hawley told The Hollywood Reporter about the number of seasons needed for ‘Alien Earth.’ “I don’t know how long it will take me to get there. It’s been such an amazing act of play for me to enter this franchise and bring my own ideas to it. And just like with ‘Fargo,’ I think, “Who am I kidding? As long as they let me tell stories in this tone of voice, I’m going to tell stories in this tone of voice.”
“Right now, I feel flush with enthusiasm for this hybrid show that I’ve made between Alien and looking at the future of humanity in a way that feels entertaining. So I don’t know. And look, there are artistic goals and the commercial goals. I think we’ve launched incredibly well. I’m certainly hoping that it’s not a long nail biter of “Can we do this again?” My hope is certainly in the next couple of months to get some kind of sign from them as to whether I should get another job or get back to work.”
As far as that cliffhanger ending, Hawley admitted that there’s a lot of different ways to look at the future for “Alien Earth” because the hybrids may have conquered Boy Kavalier but that doesn’t mean they’ve defeated Weyland-Yutani, another incredibly powerful corporation that we know still very much exists in later stories such as “Alien” and “Aliens.”
Where does that go exactly? Hawley is excited to explore that possibility
“I think there’s an artistic answer to that, and there’s a commercial answer to that, right?” Hawley said about the cliffhanger ending. “Obviously, I had to plan and execute a story that that’s going someplace. And then, this whole thing is a proof-of-concept experiment to see if enough people on the planet want to watch an ‘Alien’ TV show to justify the expense of a second and third season of an ‘Alien’ TV show.
“So for me, I never hedged my bets. This is not a closed-ended season. This chapter is closed, but Yutani troops are landing. The balance of power has shifted. These children have no idea what’s coming. The last line of, “Now we rule” is triumphant and uplifting. But cut to 10 minutes later … what is going to be happening? So I like that it has that real-time urgency to it.”
There’s so many different avenues that still need to be explored, especially after the mayhem that unfolded in the “Alien Earth” season 1 finale.
So far, the series has received solid ratings and good reviews but it remains to be seen if FX brings back the show for another season, although given Hawley’s track record with the network, it’s tough to believe he won’t get a second installment.
