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FX’s Alien Prequel Series Will Star Sydney Chandler

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FX’s Alien Prequel Series Will Star Sydney Chandler

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Published on May 2, 2023

Screenshot: 20th Century Fox
Xenomoph from Aliens
Screenshot: 20th Century Fox

The long-gestating Alien series coming from Noah Hawley (LegionFargo) has taken one more step toward liftoff. Variety reports that Sydney Chandler has been cast in the show’s lead role—though as who or what, no one’s saying.

In fact, very little at all is known about the series, which was first announced back in 2020. Over a year ago, FX’s John Landgraf let slip a few tiny details, saying that this story “takes place before Ripley”: “It’s the first story in the Alien franchise that takes place on Earth. It takes place on our planet, near the end of this century we’re currently in — 70-odd years from now.”

As Vanessa Armstrong noted, that puts it in roughly the same timeline as Prometheus.

Landgraf also said that Hawley had to finish the fifth season of Fargo before focusing on Alien; that season is expected to arrive sometime this year.

Chandler had her network debut in Danny Boyle’s Pistol, the series about the Sex Pistols, in which she played Chrissie Hynde. The actress, who is the daughter of Kyle Chandler, was also in Don’t Worry Darling.

One can only hope her character isn’t an ancestor of Ellen Ripley herself.


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Molly Templeton

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Molly Templeton has been a bookseller, an alt-weekly editor, and assistant managing editor of Tor.com, among other things. She now lives and writes in Oregon, and spends as much time as possible in the woods.
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