Alien: Earth’s first two episodes are about to drop, and Noah Hawley and lead star Sydney Chandler have just revealed the major inspiration behind the show’s lead character. Created by theFargovet, it marks the first TV show in theAlienfranchise, being set two years prior to Ridley Scott’s original movie.
The series will focus on a disparate group of soldiers investigating the crash of a spacecraft on Earth, which was housing a series of extraterrestrial species. AmongAlien: Earth’s castis Chandler as Wendy, the universe’s first hybrid, in which she is a human who has her consciousness transferred into a synthetic body.
During an interview withTVLine, both Chandler and Hawley discussed the creation of Wendy inAlien: Earth. The duo revealed that the show’s protagonist is actually very much a mix of the franchise’s two most iconic characters, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley andAliens' Newt, both in her “present” behavior and child-like nature. See what Chandler and Hawley explained below:
Chandler: Noah Hawley was able to write a very, very layered, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other character in Wendy. It’s very present, which I think you feel from Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. She’s very “take it minute by minute,” and “don’t think too far ahead,” and “leave the past behind, here we are now.” There’s a rationale to that that you don’t expect from a child, but children do have. I think Noah, watching him write about kids, he has so much respect and curiosity towards how a child’s mind works. It is new… to be able to play a character who, it’s not written on the page, like, “One tear falls from her eye,” or “She runs into his arms and faints.” She gets angry, or goes to throw the punch, which is fun and refreshing.
Hawley: In some ways, [Newt] informs very much who Wendy is, right? She’s a child in an adult’s body… There’s nobody more human than a child, right? They don’t know how to pretend they’re not scared. They’re bad liars. And they also look at the world and see the things that we have just learned to accept. Sigourney’s character was not an action hero. She was a space trucker, who was literally bringing a payload back to Earth and rose to the occasion. As someone who’s made a show called Fargo about the power of decency over evil, I think Wendy’s just inherently a decent person, and she’s going to thrive because of it.
What This Means For Alien: Earth
Much to Hawley’s point about Ripley’s original job in theAlienfranchise, there has never really been a protagonist in the series in which they were specifically trained to handle a threat like the Xenomorphs. For starters,Noomi Rapace’s Shaw inPrometheuswas an archaeologist whose faith and ambition eventually led to her and her crew’s demise.
Meanwhile, inAlien: Covenant, Katherine Waterston’s Daniels is the chief of terraforming for the colony group, while Cailee Spaeny’s Rain and the rest oftheRomuluscastwere young space colonists looking for a better life. There certainly were prepared supporting characters who stepped up to help, like Michael Biehn’s Corporal Hicks, but even they were often killed.
As such, Chandler and Hawley’s descriptions of Wendy make her one of the most unique protagonists yet in the series. Having been trained by Timothy Olyphant’s Kirsh, she’ll likely have combat skills to take onAlien: Earth’s various creatures, though her child-like consciousness is sure to present different moral discussions about the Xenomorphs.
Our Take On The Inspiration For Wendy In Alien: Earth
Ripley and Newt are two of the strongest characters in the entireAlienfranchise, so combining them for a new character feels very promising. The character description of Wendy is very unique, making her one of the major reasons to tune in. WithAlien: Earth’s reviewsalso proving one of the franchise’s best, Hawley and Chandler have a modern classic on their hands.
Alien: Earth’s first two episodes premiere on FX and FX on Hulu on August 12.
