Alien: Earth is the return to the Alien franchise that kicked off with last year’s amazing Romulus. Fargo creator Noah Hawley is at the helm of this new series, which is a major sign of a strive for tremendous quality. Leading up to the series’ release next week, we at OTN were lucky enough to attend a press conference for Alien: Earth with the cast and crew of the series, including series leads Timothy Olyphant and Sydney Chandler, as well as creator Noah Hawley. Here are the 5 biggest takeaways we got from the Alien: Earth press conference.

5. The influence of Peter Pan has never been more prominent

Peter Pan is one of the most influential kid stories of all time and there’s no question about that. It’s influence on pop culture and the icon status of the characters is so mythical that they’re used as analogy in other projects now. Noah Hawley does just that in Alien: Earth by naming his protagonist Wendy, a child’s brain in an adult body. When asked why he made this choice, Hawley credits his children, saying “I’m raising kids in this world in which the natural world is starting to turn on us and the technology we’ve created, the jury’s out on whether that’s going to turn on us. And when they asked me if I had any ideas for Alien, I thought, well, that’s what Alien is about. It’s about, this primordial monsters of our past that are trying to kill Sigourney. And then the AI future we realize is also trying to kill her. So humanity is trapped between the AI future and the monsters of the past. Once I started with this idea of bringing children into this story—the human minds transferred into synthetic bodies—then the Peter Pan analogy came pretty quickly after that”. Wendy as a character sums up everything Hawley states to a tee and the reference works flawlessly in the final product.

4. Filming in Thailand brought everyone together

Alien: Earth was shot prominently in Thailand, a very interesting and unusual place for a sci-fi story. When the cast was asked about production there and how it brought everyone closer together, Alex Lawther said “Although we were far away from home, we were really welcomed. It was a quite extraordinary host country to be working in. In terms of performance, I mean, there’s a lot of sweat in this show. And that’s in part thanks to the makeup department. But I’m sure a good 50% of that has to do with the 90% humidity of Thailand’s climate. And then we had the quite extraordinary outdoor locations in Krabi and the jungle on the water, which lends itself to visually something quite dramatic”. Hearing that shooting in a new location brought everyone together is the best outcome possible, especially on a 6+ month shoot.

3. Sydney Chandler balancing a child role and adult role

Wendy, the protagonist of Alien: Earth, is extremely fascinating as she’s a hybrid character. She’s got the brain of a child stuck in an adult body. As an actor, this process is definitely a challenge as you can’t be sure how to play this part. When asked about balancing the character, actress Sydney Chandler praised creator Noah Hawley for creating a layered character and lots to work with, as well as her co-stars. Chandler states “As far as balancing the two, it really depended on who I was acting with on the day and in what scene? You know, every actor would bring a different color to the work, which would kind of give me more information of who I am playing. It was kind of a collaboration of finding Wendy that way. But I would have this image of, you know, two magnets kind of pressing up against each other, and you just can’t get them to touch as far as the mind, which is known, and this body, which is unknown territory.”

2. What the cast and crew are excited for everyone to see

Alien: Earth is a show with so much going on and so much to look forward to. As the final question of this exciting press conference, the cast and crew were asked exactly that: what are they most excited for audiences to see? Well, Sydney Chandler and Alex Lawther answered each other’s performances in a really sweet moment, Samuel Blenkin said the storytelling, and Noah Hawley said the entire show. Pretty fitting answer for the creator, he wants his passion project to be seen in its entirety.

1. Why we keep coming back to sci-fi stories & worlds

The sci-fi genre is undisputedly one of the pillars of film and television, dating back decades. Each decade has its landmark sci-fi movie, like 2001 or Star Wars and their popularity only goes up each year. When Hawley asked us what keeps us coming back, he said. “I think, you know, we go through phases, right, where the stories are dystopian or they’re hopeful. You have, you know, 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you have Star Wars, right? And then you have Alien. And it’s like, I don’t know, Star Wars, things are looking up; Alien, things are looking down. So, you know, my responsibility in bringing Alien to the small screen is really to try to create a vision of the future in a way that the characters in the show are working through this question of what does it mean to be human and can humanity survive its own sins that maybe brings some optimism to the world”. Sci-fi is here to stay and Hawley proves that with Alien: Earth.

Alien: Earth releases on August 12, are you excited? Let us know!