More Disney investor tidbits: Fargo’s Noah Hawley is bringing Alien to TV

Disney held its 2020 Investor Day event on Thursday, and naturally the House of Mouse’s high profile franchises have grabbed all the initial headlines. Yada, yada, Fantastic Four MCU film and Loki series. Blah, blah, seven new Star Wars things.

But Lucasfilm and Marvel were far from the only Disney-owned entities making investors tingle with anticipation due to exciting upcoming projects. With the full project rundown is now available to peruse, a few announcements in particular caught our eye on first pass.

For FX on Hulu, the long anticipated adaptation of Y: The Last Man will finally debut in 2021. Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s famed DC Comics title centers on a post-apocalyptic world where only one mammal with a Y chromosome survived: a cisgender man who roams this new reality with his pet monkey. The story has been rumored for a film or TV adaptation basically since the comic neared its ending (Disturbia director D.J. Caruso was once attached back in 2007), but Diane Lane and relative newcomer Ben Schnetzer will ultimately headline the cast bringing it to life.

Those critical darlings at FX will also notably bring the Alien franchise to TV for the first time (the show is in development with no firm time frame, though). Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley will serve as the creator, but Disney noted FX is negotiating with Sir Ridley Scott to have him serve as Executive Producer. As for the plot? “Set not too far into our future, it’s the first Alien story set on Earth—and by blending both the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second, it’s going to be a scary thrill ride that will blow people back in their seats.”

Elsewhere in the Hulu/FXverse, Disney also announced a fifth season for perhaps the scariest show on TV, The Handmaid’s Tale, before its fourth season begins. Counterpart showrunner Justin Marks will adapt the feudal Japan epic Shōgun (“one of the most sweeping, sophisticated and adult series FX has ever created,” says the release). And SNL star Kate McKinnon will play Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes in an eight episode adaptation of the ABC News podcast, The Dropout. Disney expects that to debut on Hulu in 2021.

For National Geographic, Disney revealed a new Jacques Cousteau documentary, called Cousteau, is coming from filmmakers behind such recent hit docs like What Happened Miss Simone?, Free Solo, and Icarus. No time frame was announced, but Disney is still planning a theatrical and festival release for the documentary before it hits Disney+. The film has been made by leveraging, “a treasure trove of previously unseen archival material… featuring never-before-seen 4K footage from the Cousteau Society’s archives.” (Elsewhere, no joke, Will Smith will helm a docuseries called, Welcome to Earth).

Finally, there were a few other Disney+/Marvel development linear notes worth shouting out, such as:

• Oscar winner Mahershala Ali will be taking the title role of Blade in a new feature for everyone’s favorite vampire.
• New Marvel Disney+ series announcements included: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Secret Invasion, Ironheart with Dominique Thorne as a genius inventor, and Armor Wars with Don Cheadle as War Machine.
• Upcoming Disney animated feature, Raya and the Last Dragon, will get the Mulan treatment by simultaneously debuting on Disney+ Premier Access and in theaters in March 2021.
• John Mulaney and Andy Samberg (Chip and Dale), Tom Hanks (presumably Gepetto), and Jude Law (Captain Hook) are all reprising iconic Disney characters in the near future. And in 2022, Captain America himself will take over the Space Command headgear from Tim Allen, as Chris Evans voices Buzz Lightyear in the Buzz origin story, Lightyear (srsly).

Listing image by National Geographic