In 1979, with Ellen Ripley and the other passengers of the Nostromo, viewers go into deep space to meet a murderous Xenomorph. More than 30 years after the release of Ridley Scott’s Alien, FX will take the audience and the predatory creature to the green planet. The prequel series to the famous film is set on Earth and is called… Alien: Earth.
While the title may not be impressive (compared to titles like Alien Resurrection or Prometheus) and recent installments in the franchise haven’t been great, the project looks quite promising.
Noah Howley, best known as the creator of the TV series Fargo and Legion, is the creator, showrunner, and director. Ridley Scott, who directed the first Alien film in 1979, is attached to the series as an executive producer. However, this isn’t the only project in the universe that Scott is involved with: his new film Alien: Romulus hits theaters this August.
Alien: Earth (alongside Alien: Romulus) is meant to expand the universe and attract a new generation of viewers. The story is planned to span multiple seasons but with a definitive ending, which is a good sign, considering how many series have ended up being endless and pointless.
Here’s what we know so far about the Alien TV series.
When will Alien: Earth be released?
The series was announced in 2020. However, it took a long time to move forward with production. Filming for the series began in Thailand on April 19, 2024, and is expected to wrap up in July.
So, the Alien series will air in 2025, as confirmed by FX president John Landgraf during the Television Critics Association’s 2024 winter press tour (via TV Guide). However, we don’t know in which month it will be released yet.
The FX original will also be available to stream on Hulu in the US and on Star and Disney+ in other countries.
What will be the plot of Alien: Earth?
Surprisingly, we won’t be meeting the Xenomorph, that gut-ripping, chest-bursting monster, in deep space this time around. The series will be set on Earth, 30 years before the events of the first film in the franchise, Ridley Scott’s Alien.
Since Alien is set in 2122, the TV series will be set in 2092. The plot will focus on the infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation, a corrupt conglomerate engaged in various businesses, including manufacturing androids and spaceships or organizing space colonization missions.
The company has also been heavily involved in the search for alien life forms. At one point, Weyland-Yutani deciphered a message sent from the moon of Acheron, which appears to be a warning about dangerous species. In Alien, the company sent an unconscious crew of the Nostromo spaceship to investigate the matter, hoping to use the Xenomorph as a biological weapon.
The Alien TV series will show the early days of the company as it struggles to defeat its rivals in the race to create android life. It is not yet known how it will relate to the Xenomorphs.
In 2022, speaking to Esquire, Noah Hawley revealed his take on the series:
The story takes place on future Earth. For now, I’m describing it as a battle between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla. Someone is going to monopolize the electricity. We just don’t know who it is.
In the movies, we find the Weyland-Yutani company, which is also clearly developing artificial intelligence. But what if other companies tried to approach immortality from a different angle, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman uploads? Which of these technologies will prevail? It’s ultimately a classic science fiction question: does humanity deserve to survive?
FX CEO John Landgraf recently told Deadline that the series will serve as a “big, imaginative reimagining” of the Alien franchise, similar to what Hawley did on the Fargo series.
Noah has an incredible ability to both find a way to be faithful and show loyalty to an original creation, like the Coen brothers or Ridley Scott’s film and James Cameron’s sequel, Aliens, but also to bring something new that represents both an extension and a reinvention of a franchise. He did a masterful job with Alien as he did with Fargo. There are some great surprises in store for the audience.
(…) Setting the project on Earth is really interesting. We have to think about the future of the planet in terms of environment, governance, technology and create and design a version of the planet in the future… Noah wants to do this in a distinctive and original way.
Ellen Ripley, along with other characters known from previous installments of the franchise, will not be part of the series.
Who is the cast of Alien: Earth?
Sydney Chandlerwho you may know from Don’t Worry Darling, Pistol, and Sugar, will play the title character in the series. According to showrunner Noah Hawley, she will play Wendy, who is “a hybrid, a meta-human who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult.”
Sandra Yi SencindiverFoundation star, will play Yatani, a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation
Here is a list of other actors and actresses who will star in the series:
- Timothy Olyphant -Kirsh
- Samuel Blenkin – Rider Boy
- Alex Lawther – CJ
- Essie Davis – Lady Silvia
- Youth Kit – The totals
- Adarsh Gourav – Slightly
- Babou Ceesay
- Lily Newmark
- Jonathan Ayaji
- The James Era
- Diem Camille
- Adrien Edmondson
- David Rysdahl
- Bar-El tired
- Adrien Edmondson
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