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A remarkable new heroine defends humanity from outer space creepy-crawlies in this eight-episode addition to the Alien<\/em> franchise. Evoking the original 1979 sci-fi\/horror blockbuster in all its grimy, gooey, and gutsy glory, Alien: Earth<\/em><\/a> is set in 2120, shortly before the events of the mothership film that featured warrant officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver<\/a>) trapped on a spacecraft fighting a face-sucking monster.<\/p>\n In this thrilling new series, a deep space research vessel crash-lands on Earth and a brave but inexperienced young fighter, Wendy (Sydney Chandler<\/a>, above, third from left), joins the rescue mission. She\u2019s been mentored by an android named Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant<\/a>, center). The cargo turns out to be a terrifying menagerie of intergalactic life forms collected for an entity familiar from Alien<\/em><\/a>, the Weyland-Yutani Corp. They planned to profit from the extraterrestrials, but they didn\u2019t expect them to escape.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first time we\u2019re focusing on Earth,\u201d says creator and executive producer Noah Hawley<\/a> (Fargo<\/em><\/a>) of the franchise, which spawned six more movies plus two crossovers with the Predator<\/a><\/em> universe. \u201cThe question is, will humanity survive? The next question is, does humanity deserve to survive? [Director] Jim Cameron\u2019s [Aliens<\/a><\/em>, 1986] has that line from Sigourney, \u2018I don\u2019t know which species is worse.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Wendy, it turns out, is not your average human. She\u2019s a hybrid created by Prodigy Corp: a terminally ill child whose parents allowed her consciousness to be placed into a humanoid robot. Hawley hints she might ask the same question as Ripley: \u201cIt becomes a push-pull \u2014 why be human if this is what humans do to each other [vs.] the beauty of the human experience. Human nature is front and center \u2014\u00a0morality and why people act the way that they act toward each other.\u201d Hawley opened the hatch for us on his history with Alien<\/em> plus creating and casting the series.<\/p>\n Sydney Chandler as Wendy \u2014 ‘Alien: Earth’<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n FX<\/p>\n Did you see the original Alien<\/em> when it first came out?<\/strong><\/p>\n My parents did not let me go to see Alien<\/em> in the theater for some kid\u2019s ninth or 10th birthday party. I went to see The In-Laws<\/a><\/em> instead, which explains a lot about my career. I did obviously [eventually] see the film. You don\u2019t realize how bad it\u2019s going to get! It lulls you. I wanted to recreate it for an audience where you feel like, I\u2019ve seen Alien<\/em> movies, I\u2019ve never seen this<\/em> before.<\/p>\n What did you have to consider when taking it from a film to a TV series?<\/strong><\/p>\n An Alien<\/em> movie is a two-hour survival story. It\u2019s a monster movie. A television show can\u2019t be that. A television show has to be long form, with characters that you can invest in, and relationships, and dynamics.<\/p>\n A constant in the franchise is a female lead. Was it tough to cast the role of Wendy?<\/strong><\/p>\n I always saw Fargo<\/em> as a female franchise because of Frances McDormand<\/a>. Alien<\/em> is the same because of Sigourney. When you\u2019re casting, especially in an age group in which not a lot of actors are well known, you have that fear: is that actor out there? I was shooting Fargo<\/em> in Calgary and I FaceTimed with a few actors. Sydney got on a plane and flew to Calgary. She\u2019d been offered a big movie, but she\u2019s a sci-fi geek and she wanted this gig and she earned it. She\u2019d done Pistol<\/a><\/em> for FX and they recognized that she was a star. It was super critical to me not just to have one strong female character, but to have multiple so that she\u2019s not alone in her journey.<\/p>\n Right. One of the characters who \u201craises\u201d her on the island is Dame Silvia played by Essie Davis<\/a>, who sometimes clashes with Wendy\u2019s \u201cfather\u201d figure, android Kirsh. How did you end up casting Timothy Olyphant in that role?<\/strong><\/p>\n When we were shooting that fourth season of Fargo<\/em>, I said, I have something for you that\u2019s very different. There\u2019s something erudite or aloof about many of the androids [in previous movies.] Tim\u2019s Americanness was interesting to put into that role. Just like with Jon Hamm<\/a>, when I thought, oh, there\u2019s a constitutional sheriff in there [Hamm played a villainous lawman in the fifth season of Fargo<\/em>], there\u2019s a dark character in this leading man. I love that Tim plays both sides of the moral spectrum. Is he a good guy or a villain? We definitely explore that in this season.<\/p>\n One way you made this different from the movies is that the familiar xenomorph is joined by more aliens. Why bring them in and how did you create these new species?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was interested in that idea of, if you\u2019re going to bring these creatures to a terrestrial environment, how are they going to change it and how are other creatures going to interact with them? The idea of seeing these creatures in an earth landscape is such a profoundly unsettling and kind of exhilarating thing. Some of it is just \u2014 what\u2019s the worst thing I could think of? Who do they kill and what do they eat? How do they reproduce? That\u2019s going to be gross. I adjust every element from the skin texture to sound design until they tell me I can\u2019t do it anymore. It all goes to getting into your nightmares. My hope is that people who watch this show will never do anything comfortably again. They\u2019re like, should I eat that? I should probably pick that piece of bread up and look what\u2019s under it.<\/p>\n