FX chief John Landgraf has announced that their upcoming Alien series won't be shot until after Fargo's season 5, though showrunner Noah Hawley is presently writing scripts for both.

He confirmed that the series won't include any existing characters from the films and revealed that it takes place before them on Earth approximately 70 years from our present time.

Interestingly he repeatedly spoke of "reinvention":

Noah has an incredible ability to both find a way of being faithful and showing fidelity to an original creation, like to the Coen brothers [with Fargo] or to Ridley Scott’s movie and James Cameron’s follow-up Aliens, but also to bring something new that represents both an extension and reinvention of a franchise at the same time.

and:

I hope they will feel like it’s faithful to the franchise they love but also a brave and original reinvention of that franchise.

The first two films were good, the third mediocre and the fourth a dud.

The Alien v Predator films were not much loved.

Ridley Scott's prequel films also fizzled. Though three to four sequels were planned, they only made one.

So this franchise has been rich in reinvention and we interpret his language as communicating he knows that this series needs to do it again.

[ Main Image: Alien Covenant. Credit: 20th Century Fox via IMDb.com. ]

References

Hibberd, James (February 17, 2022). FX Gives New Details on ‘Alien’ TV Series, Teases “Big Surprises”. The Hollywood Reporter.

Wikipedia. Alien Covenant. (viewed February 19, 2022)