Earth' Season 2, 'Far Cry' & 'Fargo' Future

EXCLUSIVE: Noah Hawley is hoping that Alien: Earth has found its forever home at the UK’s Pinewood Studios. As the the FX sci-fi show nears start of production on its second run, the writer, director and showrunner revealed he wants it to return for multiple seasons – and has the same ambitions for his upcoming Far Cry TV series.

In an exclusive interview with Deadline ahead of his appearance at Canneseries, where he is the Guest of Honor, Hawley provided updates on the future of Fargo and and Alien: Earth, along with production plans for Far Cry later this year, and addressed the evolution of his long-standing relationship with FX and Disney.

Buzz around Alien: Earth Season 2 has been growing over recent months, and Hawley is in London this week prepping for the shoot, which star Sydney Chandler recently said was looking at a May start.

“What I can say is we start [shooting] this summer. We’re getting close,” he told me. “I did a stage walk today past the props and costumes. Things are being built. It’s always exciting to see it. We had a great experience in Thailand, but for a couple of reasons London is a better home for us long-term.”

The production moved from Thailand, where Season 1 was filmed, to the UK’s Pinewood Studios, where the original Alien, Alien 2, Alien 3 and Prometheus were primarily shot, and that history isn’t lost on the showrunner. He cited one full circle moment that felt like coming home.

Alien: Earth production designer Neil Lamont is the son of Peter Lamont, who was the production designer on the original film. “Neil did some work on it when he was a teen,” said Hawley. “I love those connections, and how personal this franchise is to people. The British art department is legendary: You know however difficult the concept, it will executed the first time to the highest degree.”

Now that Alien is back in Buckinghamshire, Hawley is hoping the TV show goes the distance, noting that the first run is always “proof of concept” before “you have to come up with a sustainable model” for production.

Hawley said the second season “certainly expands on the promise of the first,” which followed a group of prototype hybrids who are forced to come face-to-face with the sinister xenomorphs after a deep space research vessel crash lands on Earth. “It’s a bigger show, more world building, and I can’t think of a better place for taking on that bigger challenge.”

As for further seasons, Hawley confirmed: “It’s my hope – I have a place that I’m going, but I don’t know how long it will take me to get there. Assuming that the price of execution and the audience stays commensurate, we could go for as long as we want. If we nurture them, these franchises can give back for a very long time.”

Deadline recently broke the news Peter Dinklage will have a role in Season 2, and while Hawley remained tight-lipped on other castings, he shed some light on the part the Game of Thrones star will play. “Obviously, this franchise has a lot of iconic roles in it,” he said. “I am, for better or worse, an ensemble writer who has never met a character I didn’t like, but he’s got a major role, and people are going to feel it’s a worthy role for him.”

Hawley said the season is “really about to start casting up,” and hoped an announcement would “come soon.”

‘Far Cry’ & ‘Fargo’ Season 6 Updates

Having learned his trade on the likes of Bones and two shows he’d created, The Unusuals and My Generation, Hawley is now among the busiest showrunners in the world today. This year, he will lead on both Alien: Earth and video game adaptation Far Cry, which is set to shoot after the second installment sci-fi horror. Hawley addressed how he is juggling multiple major productions, saying the “hard prep” on Far Cry will begin just as Alien: Earth goes into production. “I am not afraid – yet,” he quipped.

To lighten the load, he will not direct Alien: Earth Season 2, will only direct the first two episodes of Far Cry and he has co-showrunners on both shows. “There will be a moment where I am running two shows at the same time, so you make choices,” he added. (Hawley directed two episodes of Alien: Earth‘s first season, including the premiere.)

“I’ve built them both out of London at Pinewood and there is a secondary location that will serve both shows. I’ve tried to be smart about it. We have most of Alien written and we’re halfway through the other show. Once we have the scripts, it’s less my job and more someone else’s.

“Television is a business model and a logistical model that works because you build it out right, and as much as I respect those filmmakers who decide they want to direct every episode themselves, it’s not really how it was designed to be done, and on some levels that feels like a game of chicken you’re playing with your own endurance.”

Far Cry, first published back in 2004, is a series of first-person shooter games in which the protagonist is dropped in an unfamiliar and hostile environment that forces them to make dark choices. As to why the format interested him, Hawley pointed to a similarity with Fargo.

“One thing that really attracted me to the Far Cry franchise is that it is an anthology and every time they release a new game it is a totally different story,” he explained. “That’s how I approach Fargo, and it was an exciting idea that we could build an anthology game adaptation where each season is a different story about civilized people thrown into situations where they have to become increasingly uncivilized.

“I’m not specifically adapting any of the games that they’ve put out – I’m saying much as I did with the Coens or X-Men [he created FX’s Legion] or Alien, ‘Let me have a dialog with this franchise, because this is what I think a Far Cry story is.’ We can have a larger conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of adapting video games specifically because games are built in a way that doesn’t make for the best drama.

“When you play a video game, you only really move forward through the gameplay section, and then you have these cut scenes that you can skip, so when you go to adapt those games you have to be aware that makes the human drama kind of irrelevant to the storyline. That is death for a show.”

Juno Temple and Jon Hamm in ‘Fargo’ Season 5

Michelle Faye/FX

As for Fargo, arguably the program that really established Hawley as a top-tier showrunner, the noises are good for those hoping for more. Dedication to getting Alien: Earth off the ground means it has been more than two years since Season 5 launched on FX and Hulu in January 2024, but Hawley and FX want the series adaptation of the Coen brothers film continue.

Hawley went some way to confirming news of the crime caper’s return, telling Deadline: “Those are conversations that are still ongoing – where it could fit. “I hope to have an announcement about it soon. It’s great to see the enthusiasm is still there.”

Development Slate: ‘The Witches Of Cambridge’, ‘Terrified’ & More

As for his recently struck renewal of his overall deal with FX and Disney Entertainment Television, which Deadline has reported to be in the nine-figure range, Hawley said it all about quality over quantity at his production house, 26 Keys.

“I’m not a big production company development machine,” he said. “We have a brand at 26 Keys that is about finding unique storytellers and material that either plays with structure in an interesting way or plays with character. It is not a volume business. At this point, I feel like I am always going to be making something – I’m not looking for something to do in my spare time – so the projects really have to stand out.”

He pointed to development on a show involving John Mulaney and former Acting Solicitor General of the United States Neal Katyal, and the recently unveiled The Witches Of Cambridge, a drama series based on the upcoming novel by Practical Magic author Alice Hoffman. Deadline was first with news of the latter.

His plans to direct an English-language version of Argentinian feature Terrified at Warner Bros. sits outside of the Disney TV deal, and followed him switching agents to WME last year.

“It came about really easily,” he said. “Robert Newman, my feature film agent, also represents the Argentinian director of the original film. He called as the rights were available and I really love that film. I’d been talking with Mike de Luca and Pam Abdy about finding something to do together, and I emailed Mike, who said it was his favorite horror movie. It was sort of that simple, but those moments where it all comes together don’t happen that often.”

Next week, Hawley will be Guest of Honor at the ninth edition of Canneseries, where he will talk about his appreciation for global television and discuss his 20-year career in production.

“You look at some of my favorite shows over the last few years – the Korean feudal zombie drama The Kingdom, the Money Heist franchise or Top Boy out of the UK,” he said. “M – The Mussolini Story that Joe Wright did was by far my favorite show last year. I thought it so innovative as an act of storytelling and breaking the fourth wall, the energy of it, and how he managed what were very clearly budgetary restraints.

“You see with the success of Adolescence and Baby Reindeer that audiences are open, and they’re open to reading subtitles and it all. That becomes really thrilling. I’ve always hired international casts – Alien is very international and I love all of the accents. Fargo by definition is more regional and Alien is the opposite, and did an amazing global launch for us. Far Cry has the potential to be the same. You have the ability to go anywhere and tell any story.”