EXCLUSIVE: Noah Hawley’s Earthbound ‘Alien’ Series Adds ‘Foundation’ & ‘I Am Mother’ Cinematographer Steve Annis

FX/Hulu, 20th Century Studios, and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions have come together alongside creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”) to make a series set within the “Alien” universe. Filming has been underway in Thailand after a production pause due to last year’s strikes and we have a small tidbit to share.

The Ronin can confirm that director of photography Steve Annis (“I’m A Virgo”) is part of the show’s crew working on the Earthbound series that takes place before the events of the mainline film franchise. Annis is best known for the Apple TV+ series “Foundation,” the Netflix movie “I Am Mother,” the Nicolas Cage sci-fi horror flick “Color of Space,” and recently worked on Lionsgate’s remake of “The Crow.” We previously revealed that “Fargo” director Dana Gonzales would be helming an unknown number of episodes alongside Hawley and that production designer Andy Nicholson (“Captain Marvel,” “Gravity”) would be working on the show as well.

The “Alien” series has a cast that consists of Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Kit Young, Essie David, Samuel Blenkin, David Rysdahl, Adarsh Gourav, Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El, and Adrian Edmondson. One of the more recent additions has been Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”) who is said to be playing an android character. “Synthetics” in the “Alien” franchise have been both friends (Walter, Bishop, Call) and foes (Ash, David) to our human leads.

This isn’t the only “Alien” project on the horizon with Fede Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” being released on August 16, 2024, that will focus on a group of young human colonists on an off-world facility. Actress Cailee Spaeny confirmed that “Romulus” takes place between the events of the first two movies within the franchise timeline, suggesting a potential link to “Aliens” and the Hadley’s Hope outbreak on LV-426.

We also got some promising news about the “Predator” franchise as director Dan Trachtenberg (“Prey”) is set to return for a future-set film called “Badlands with a bunch of other projects in development including “Prey 2.” Hopefully, “Badlands” and “Romulus” end up planting seeds for a faithful feature/series incarnation of “Aliens vs Predator” that takes place in a futuristic off-world setting for that fray with the return of Colonial Marines. The lackluster “AVP” movies were some of the less interesting entries due to their contemporary Earthbound settings and the thinking is that 20th Century Studios may attempt to resurrect the comic book/video game crossover down the line.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the “Alien” series is aiming to debut sometime in 2025.