Noah Hawley Explains Why ‘Prometheus’ Isn’t “Useful” for His ‘Alien’ Prequel

[Highland]

I like the idea's proposed personally, clean sheet sounds like a much better path to go down. I guess the problem is always the same with these franchises - the timeline, rather than the content.

[xShadowFoxX]

Later stories cannot change the intent of an earlier story; that intent is set in stone when it comes out.

Later stories can recontextualize what the earlier story shows us (that's what a retcon is), but that does not change its original intent. The intent of 'Alien' absolutely was that the Derelict and its contents were ancient, and Dallas uses narrative shorthand to convey that even if the precise words he's using aren't scientifically accurate. He's using a term the audience will understand to convey "this is old". Just because he didn't use the precisely correct scientific terminology doesn't mean the intent wasn't "the audience is meant to conclude this is old". Up until Alien Covenant came out, no one thought the Derelict might not be ancient.

Intentions can change, and what ever it was before does not matter to current intent. 
Scott changed his intent and for good or bad, newer stories do overwrite old ones (unless otherwise stated or a sequel-reboot is made such as Dark fate not counting T3, TS, TG as ever happened) that is why is it called retroactive continuity and not futureactive continuity.
It does not matter what the intent was in the original because scott changed his mind and made intent clear in the prequels. The intentions behind the first movie no longer exist in the current franchise. If you have any respect for the director's intent as you seem to bring up his old intention, then you need to acknowledge what his intent was for Coventnent. It sucked for sure but the director made it clear.

Wouldn't it be O'Bannon's original intent tho, since he was the one who wrote it? I wouldn't say it was solely on Ridley Scott since that movie was essentially the perfect storm of creatives whereas Covenant and even Prometheus were not.

[Corporal Hicks]

Covenant isn't ambiguous at all and people who keep telling themselves that are deluding themselves.

Tell that to @Corporal Hicks who thinks it's "deliberately ambiguous"

11:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl5LV_degt4

Did I say deliberately ambiguous? I must have been drunk because I'm firm in the belief that the film is very clear in its intent, but there's enough leeway in there for them to easily work their way out of that story direction as per my other video.

[SiL]

Hicks knows what's up.

[Kane's other son]

Canon is what's on screen. Not marketing material, novelizations or RPG source books.

Ridley wanted the alien to be the result of David playing God but what's on screen leaves enough leeway for David to be the creator of a just a new strain of the creature.
Similarly, there are enough differences between the space jockey and the Engineers to make a scenario in which they are two different species possible.

Until a new movie or show gives us definitive answers, everything is narratively fair game.

[Ingwar]

Did I say deliberately ambiguous?

That's what I've heard unless I was drunk

[The Cruentus]

Later stories cannot change the intent of an earlier story; that intent is set in stone when it comes out.

Later stories can recontextualize what the earlier story shows us (that's what a retcon is), but that does not change its original intent. The intent of 'Alien' absolutely was that the Derelict and its contents were ancient, and Dallas uses narrative shorthand to convey that even if the precise words he's using aren't scientifically accurate. He's using a term the audience will understand to convey "this is old". Just because he didn't use the precisely correct scientific terminology doesn't mean the intent wasn't "the audience is meant to conclude this is old". Up until Alien Covenant came out, no one thought the Derelict might not be ancient.

Intentions can change, and what ever it was before does not matter to current intent. 
Scott changed his intent and for good or bad, newer stories do overwrite old ones (unless otherwise stated or a sequel-reboot is made such as Dark fate not counting T3, TS, TG as ever happened) that is why is it called retroactive continuity and not futureactive continuity.
It does not matter what the intent was in the original because scott changed his mind and made intent clear in the prequels. The intentions behind the first movie no longer exist in the current franchise. If you have any respect for the director's intent as you seem to bring up his old intention, then you need to acknowledge what his intent was for Coventnent. It sucked for sure but the director made it clear.

Wouldn't it be O'Bannon's original intent tho, since he was the one who wrote it? I wouldn't say it was solely on Ridley Scott since that movie was essentially the perfect storm of creatives whereas Covenant and even Prometheus were not.

That is why Prometheus and Covenent deviated a lot, because there was no storm of creatives, no one to balance out Scott.

Canon is what's on screen. Not marketing material, novelizations or RPG source books.

Ridley wanted the alien to be the result of David playing God but what's on screen leaves enough leeway for David to be the creator of a just a new strain of the creature.
Similarly, there are enough differences between the space jockey and the Engineers to make a scenario in which they are two different species possible.

Until a new movie or show gives us definitive answers, everything is narratively fair game.

No, Canon is what they say is canon. Which can take multiple mediums. If nothing is usually said on a medium then that is when it is fair to go by heirarchy, such Movies being top tier.

You may try and ignore the intent all you want, it was still the intent of the man who made the movie. The movie shows it and I am pretty sure so did the director's commentary (I only listened once so I can't too sure) and then there is his interviews.  There is nothing to interprete.

I do understand people being in denial, it is not a good addition to the lore but grasping at straws does not change what the director himself has made clear.

[Xenomrph]

To be fair there's a case to be made that authorial intent doesn't matter, "death of the author" etc.

[[cancerblack]]

Canon is what's on screen. Not marketing material

Canon is a type of marketing.

[Nightmare Asylum]

The only thing that really matters when I'm watching a movie is that movie. I'm not hung up on David when I see the Space Jockey in Alien, and I'm not thinking about the ancient Derelict when I watch Covenant.

It's all "canon," but also, they're different films with different intentions and I find both to be uniquely interesting.

In the future, when I watch Covenant, I'll still likely approach it from the "David as creator" mindset because that is clearly the intent of the film, even if I end up loving Hawley's show and the different direction that the Alien's origin (or lack thereof) is spun in that series.

[Mr.Turok]

Between Noah Hawley and the writers of Aliens Dark Descent, I'm glad that Alien writers outright dislike Ridley's path for the alien series.




I'll never understand why shrinking the Alien mythos instead of leaving it dark and mysterious as the void of space is a good thing. Just because it's the creator's intent doesn't mean it's always going to be a good idea.

If anything for a compromise though, I do accept the concept of David making his own xenomorph strain rather than being the sole creator. It's not new to the Alien series when you think about, EX: The King Alien, and it adds a new theme of the Alien mythos of messing around with things we don't understand and being irreparably irresponsible with said things. I can see future stories of WY and other organizations messing around with the Black Goo and having terrible results from it, creating all sorts of terrible monstrosities and things that should not be. Like how apparently in the Ridley Scott's director's commentary, the Praetomorph is able to regenerate from would-be fatal injuries like being crushed and dismembered, making it virtually indestructible. As if they are already not deadly enough but now they gotta regenerate?! It's like the Hunter from Dead Space, it's not a thing you can just shoot at you just gotta run away now and that like in Dead Space, adds more terror elements into the mythos for people to play with in future stories.

Plus the retro-futurism style is such a iconic look, its a huge part of the Alien identity that the smooth and sterile futuristic style especially robbed of the series' uniqueness. Whenever it's WH40K, Dead Space, Star Trek, Star Wars, ect, each futuristic artstyle sets it's unique identify to their world that people can quickly identify and remember with such ease. Numbing down Alien's style to a more generic tone robs it of it's roots and thus makes it indistinguishable from other sci-fi series, which should always be a big no no. Aliens is a trend setter, not a follower. There is a reason why many current sci-fi series takes inspiration from Aliens. I'm not saying it's not allowed to adopt new ideas into it's DNA but outright removing the elements that made it a trend setter in the first place is also not the way to go. I'm really glad he wishes to preserve that iconic art that should have never been torn from in the first place.

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

Expected there'd be division in the fanbase, since the Dats of Alien3, Resurrection, AvP, AVPR, Prometheus and Covenant fans picked n choose which they regarded, the Alien Tv show might perhaps not directly address aspect of the Prequels but I doubt they'll erase anything. Wonder what other forays into the world of Alien awaits, after Alien Romulus in August could we expect another feature two three years later set Post Alien3, or a Legacy sequel cashing on nostalgia, or is it likely to be more inter-quel set in between projects. We'll wait and see why the future hold

[The Cruentus]

Plus the retro-futurism style is such a iconic look, its a huge part of the Alien identity that the smooth and sterile futuristic style especially robbed of the series' uniqueness.

What retro-futurism though? Outside of the intentional style of Alien Isolation, the tech of Alien and Aliens was simply due to being the product of when it was made. It was not intended to be retro back in 79 and the 80s, it was just what they had to work with.

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

@The Cruentus I hard it was supposedly to apply a used dirty secondhand used future scrap metal aesthetic that work on Star Wars 1977. Could be mistaken if it was a director influence for the look of the tech.

[The Cruentus]

Of course there probably was an intent in making things look dirty and used, but that its not same as being retro, it wasn't retro-futurism back then, it was just futurism based on what they had available to make it look futuristic.