Noah Hawley and Disney have come a good distance collectively over the previous 15 years. After creating and delivering the sci-fi horror hit Alien: Earth in August 2025, Hawley should really feel extremely gratified to search out success with the corporate that canceled his 2010 mockumentary collection, My Era, after simply two episodes on ABC (a Disney subsidiary).
Given Hawley’s trajectory since My Era, a authentic argument could be made that the abrupt cancellation helped his profession in the long term. Hawley instantly left comedy behind to give attention to crime dramas and sci-fi-action collection, discovering a lot larger vital and industrial success. Coming full circle to bolster his bond with the Disney company, Noah Hawley is proof that second probabilities do happen in Hollywood with sufficient persistence and perseverance.
What Is ‘My Era’ About? And Why Was It Canceled?
Earlier than his function as a TV present creator and runner, Noah Hawley wrote for and executive-produced the hit procedural Bones for Fox. Following a profitable three-year stint on Bones, Hawley created his first TV present, the 2009 ABC crime comedy collection The Unusuals. Though The Unusuals ran for 10 episodes, it was canceled after its first season.
Following The Unusuals, Disney/ABC remained with Hawley by greenlighting My Era, an hour-long comedy mockumentary collection that premiered on the community in September 2010. Tailored from the Swedish collection God’s Freeway, My Era‘s premise includes a highschool reunion gathering in Austin, Texas, the place a number of classmates reunite 10 years after commencement to look in a before-and-after actuality TV collection, to witness the place their lives have gone and who they’ve turn out to be as adults.
Slated for an eight-episode first season, My Era was canceled after solely two episodes aired. ABC cited poor viewership scores that, coupled with a paltry 5.9 IMDb ranking, spelled doom for Hawley’s first present creation. A month later, ABC uploaded the remaining six episodes on-line for viewers to see. After two failed TV makes an attempt with Disney/ABC, Hawley went again to the drafting board and located a brand new objective with Legion and Fargo on FX, one other subsidiary of Disney.
‘My Era’s Cancellation Was a Blessing in Disguise for Hawley
Typically, going backwards is important for progress. In Noah Hawley’s case, he turned the agonizing trials of My Era‘s swift cancellation into main triumphs with FX’s Legion and Fargo. Fairly than making an attempt the failed hour-long comedy route once more, Hawley reinvented his storytelling imaginative and prescient by going into a lot darker materials, which has led to immense reputation and extra alternatives.
A much more completed and acclaimed TV collection than The Unusuals or My Era, Legion adapts Marvel’s darkish superhero story about Professor X’s son, David Haller (Dan Stevens), who’s identified with schizophrenia and turns into the supply of his psychological superpowers. Legion was not canceled after two episodes or a single season, however as an alternative lasted three seasons en path to garnering a 91% Rotten Tomatoes ranking.
The bona fide FX hit solidified Hawley’s relationship with Disney, which tapped the showrunner to steer Fargo for the community. A seemingly unimaginable TV adaptation of Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 crime traditional, FX’s Fargo turned much more common and praised than Legion. Fargo has launched 5 seasons from 2014 to 2024, incomes 7 Primetime Emmy Awards and rating #48 on IMDb’s Prime 250 TV reveals.
The success of Fargo emboldened Hawley to create an excellent loftier TV present, an adaptation of the landmark Alien franchise launched by Ridley Scott in 1979. With the success of Legion and Fargo for FX, Disney felt comfy hiring Hawley to shepherd Alien: Earth, and the choice paid off handsomely.
Hawley and Disney Reunite for a Sci-Fi Hit in ‘Alien: Earth’
In what should really feel like a profession vindication, Hawley has delivered his greatest TV hit for the company that axed My Era 15 years prior. Praised for its cinematic grandeur, Alien: Earth takes place in 2120, two years earlier than the occasions of Ridley Scott’s Alien. On a macro stage, the collection follows cutthroat megacorporations vying for common management. On a micro stage, the story follows Wendy (Sydney Chandler), the primary recorded human-robot hybrid, who’s assigned to coach others like her, younger kids dubbed The Misplaced Boys.
As Wendy and her fellow crewmates aboard the Weyland-Yutani analysis vessel, Maginot, crash-land on Earth, they’re stalked, slashed, and lots of of them are slaughtered by a vicious alien species. In the meantime, Wendy should discover her lacking brother, Hermit (Alex Lawther), a human medic working for the rival Prodigy Company. When Prodigy’s brash CEO declares that the stays of the crash belong to his firm, Wendy’s loyalties are torn between her brother and her employer.
Along with advancing the overarching Alien mythology ahead by introducing new breeds of extraterrestrial creatures, Alien: Earth is at its finest when exploring the proliferation of AI and imagining the longer term inhabitants divided into synths, cyborgs, and hybrids. Whereas it could be a bit slower and the fear quotient much less intense than some would love, Alien: Earth has earned rave opinions and turn out to be one of many most-watched new TV reveals.
At the moment holding a 95% Tomato Meter rating and 58 Metascore, Alien: Earth is a bona fide hit amongst film and TV critics. Whereas common audiences are much less impressed (together with a 7.6 IMDb ranking and 71% Popcorn Meter Rating), the present has paid off handsomely for Disney, FX, and Noah Hawley.
Along with the vital reward, Alien: Earth drew so many eyeballs between August 18 and August 24 that it broke Netflix’s consecutive streak of being the highest streaming program for 11 weeks. It is also the primary Hulu unique collection to turn out to be the highest streaming present since Shogun in Could 2024.
Though no official announcement has been made relating to a renewal, Alien: Earth plans to proceed for Season 2 and past. Whether or not FX stays onboard, Hawley has overcome the ache and agony of getting My Era nixed after two episodes by launching Alien: Earth into stratospheric success. Alien: Earth is now accessible to stream on Hulu.
- Launch Date
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August 12, 2025
- Community
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FX, Hulu
- Administrators
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Dana Gonzales, Ugla Hauksdóttir, Noah Hawley
