Alien TV series: Weta is reportedly creating the special effects

The Alien franchise is set to continue with a television series on the Hulu streaming service, and just last week the show’s creator Noah Hawley said that development of the show is “going great”, but also “going slowly” due to the scale of it. The folks over at AVP Galaxy hear that the Alien series will be heading into production in March – and they’ve also heard that Weta is the special effects studio that will be “responsible for designing and bringing the Xenomorphs to life” for the show.

There’s no word on what the balance between practical and digital effects will be, but Weta will be able to handle it either way, since “Weta is actually comprised of sister companies Weta Digital, which handles primarily computer generated effects, and Weta Workshop, handling primarily practical effects and concept art.” The company was co-founded by Peter Jackson in 1993. While Weta previously provided some digital effects for Prometheus, this will be their first time bringing the Xenomorphs to the screen.

Weta’s previous credits include the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, District 9, Avatar, the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy, Godzilla vs. Kong, and multiple Marvel and DC movies.

The Alien TV series will be set on Earth sometime in the future. Hawley has said he went with that setting because

the Alien stories are always trapped. Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of “What happens if you can’t contain it?” are more immediate.

Hawley has also said that the Ripley character will not be on the show, as he feels that her story has been told perfectly and he doesn’t want to mess with it.

Ridley Scott serves as a producer on the Alien TV series. Hawley previously created the Marvel-inspired television series Legion and the Coen Brothers-inspired series Fargo.