FX is on a roll right now: filming has just wrapped on its rather exciting Alien series, and Shōgun season two is ready to begin. While the subject matter is somewhat different – there aren't many face-huggers or chest-bursters in Shōgun – they're both high-quality shows that are causing some excitement.
The Alien prequel show has now been given an official title too, Alien: Earth, after being moved from production into the visual effects stage. That's according to showrunner Noah Hawley, who told Variety that "it's a very big show". And while only one season has been produced so far, everyone is "pretty bullish" about the prospect of more. Network boss John Langraf says that the assumption is that Alien: Earth "is a returning television series" and that he wants Hawley to write two seasons before returning to his other big show, Fargo.
Alien Earth is a prequel to the 1979 Ridley Scott classic, Alien, and should debut later this year alongside the next film in the franchise, Alien: Romulus.
What's happening with Shōgun season 2?
Shōgun is the top nominee in this year's Emmys, with a massive 25 nominations compared to 23 for The Bear – both of which feature high up in our best Hulu shows and best Disney Plus shows lists. John Landgraf told Variety that he'd just congratulated the show's showrunner and writer – Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo –, when they had "just stepped out of the writers room and are happily at work".
According to Landgraf, "we're hoping to be in production relatively early next year" –but that doesn't mean season two will air any time soon. "It's a long production period, he explains. I think between principal and second unit days of photography, that show shot between 180 and 190 days or more, could have been close to 200."
It'll be fascinating to see how the second season continues. As we wrote when the second and third seasons were confirmed, the first season of the show exhausted its source material. "The big question, then, is how Marks, Kondo, and the rest of the show's writers – in conjunction with the Estate of James Clavell – will tackle a sequel season that not only tells a compelling follow-up to season one's events, but also recaptures the brutal allure and political intrigue of this engrossing time period without any source material to fall back on." We'll find out in 2025.
