Exclusive: Aliens Prequel Show About Hadley’s Hope In Development
According to our trusted and proven sources, an Aliens prequel about the last stand of humans on Hadley's Hope is being developed.
This article is more than 2 years old
The Alien series is one of the greatest, bleakest of science fiction franchises. Where Star Trek has utopian optimism built into its DNA (regardless of how Picard tries to bum everyone out) and Star Wars has grand generational ambitions, Alien is just about not trying to get brutally killed by acid-blood monsters from H.R. Giger’s nightmares. According to our trusted and proven sources, the franchise is about to go back in time and set up an Aliens prequel. Specifically, a series about Hadley’s Hope and their doomed battle against the xenomorphs is in the works.
To brush up on some Aliens lore, the prequel will take place in Hadley’s Hope, the space colony set up by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation for terraforming, and humans-host-incubating some shiny new killer aliens. It is the setting for the 1986 James Cameron movie Aliens, the second installment in the series and when Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley really became the alien-killing badass we know and love. This new Aliens prequel will focus on the colony before the xenomorphs show up and their eventual battle against the starbeasts that (spoiler alert) ends in the horrible death of every human being except for an adorable moppet named Rebecca “Newt” Jorden (Carrie Henn).
We can assume the Aliens prequel will basically be Hadley’s Hope’s last stand against the aliens, a Space Alamo, if you will. Most likely, we will also be getting some of the Alien franchise’s trademark “blue-collar workers, but in space” dynamics; starting with the very first Ridley Scott film, there has been a strong dynamic of humans arguing amongst themselves while inhuman monsters pick them off. This particular Aliens prequel has a lot of potential for that, especially considering Hadley’s Hope is supposed to be a mining colony in the process of establishing itself. Fun fact: Hadley’s Hope is located on a planet designated Acheron (LV-426), which is in the Zeta Reticuli system; that is the very same system often hypothesized as the origin point of so-called “Gray Aliens.” So, basically, a lot of alien lore in this one place.
There was a time when the words “Aliens prequel” would be met with unambiguous enthusiasm and excitement. Regrettably, the mixed reception towards 2012’s Prometheus and its slightly confusing mythology of giant angry space Engineers dampened fans’ hopes for future installments. Aliens: Covenant did a little bit better in 2017 (at least giving us some true xenomorph action), but it still has been a very long time since an Alien franchise project really delivered the goods.
However, it seems that an Aliens prequel set in the ironically named Hadley’s Hope will be more action-oriented than recent films in the series. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the franchise’s periodic musings on the nature of evolution, meaning, and life itself, there is also some inherently satisfying with seeing a xenomorph get torched. Here is hoping that is what we get this time around with an Aliens prequel show.
