How FX’s Alien: Earth Fits Into the Alien Universe

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For the first time ever, the Alien universe is crash-landing onto the small screen.

Following the release of “Alien: Romulus” in 2024, which marked the seventh film installment of the iconic Alien franchise that started with Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi masterpiece “Alien,” the new TV series by Fargo’s creator Noah Hawley titled “Alien: Earth” will take the ongoing horror narrative to a world it hasn’t explored before – our home planet, Earth.

In discussing the inspiration for Earth, Hawley noted that while Alien is more than just a monster movie, it’s also a tale of humanity caught between its ancient parasitic roots and its advanced Artificial Intelligence future – both threatening our existence. Essentially, this story raises the question: does humanity deserve to endure? Is our overconfidence in believing we are no longer prey, coupled with our creation of AI beings who may not always follow our commands, a recipe for disaster? Ultimately, is there any escape?

The premieres of the first two episodes of the series “Earth” are set for August 12 at 8 p.m. ET on FX. From then on, new episodes will air every Tuesday, concluding on September 23. In the United States, these episodes can be streamed on Hulu, while internationally they’ll be available on Disney+.

Here’s how Alien: Earth fits into the overall Alien timeline.

How Alien: Earth connects to Alien

In the year 2142, between the occurrences depicted in the film Alien (2122) and the sequel Aliens directed by James Cameron (1986, set in 2179), Earth presents a prequel series that unfolds two years prior to the events shown in the original movie, which is in the year 2120.

The series unfolds in a nearby future where five powerful corporations – Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold – rule the Earth. In the opening of Episode 1, we discover that this era marks a significant point in history when the pursuit of immortality has branched into three distinct paths. These include cyborgs, who are humans with artificial components; synths, advanced robots possessing almost human consciousness (similar to the late Ian Holm’s famous android Ash from Alien); and hybrids, synthetic beings that have been given genuine human consciousness.

In simpler terms, Hybrids represent the latest technological breakthrough, a brainchild of billionaire prodigy Boy Kavalier and his company Prodigy. They’ve devised a confidential process to transfer the minds of terminally ill children into powerful, theoretically immortal synthetic bodies. Their first successful hybrid was Marcy, a 12-year-old girl battling cancer, who was transferred into an adult-like synth named Wendy. The Prodigy team then goes on to create a group of child-like synths they call the Lost Boys, a name that reflects Boy Kavalier’s fondness for Peter Pan references.

From the very beginning, it’s evident that this situation is a massive ethical dilemma. However, things take a turn for the worse when Kavalier dispatches Wendy and her team, the Lost Boys, to examine the wreckage of a Weyland-Yutani spacecraft that landed in the city of New Siam, controlled by Prodigy. This spacecraft not only houses a fully grown Xenomorph but also other enigmatic and dangerous life forms. It’s at this point that the situation starts to get wildly out of hand.

Do Prometheus and Covenant come into play?

It’s clear that some viewers might be curious if the complex history introduced in Scott’s prequel films, specifically “Prometheus” (2012) and “Alien: Covenant” (2017), will factor into the plot given that the latter takes place only 16 years before the events of “Earth.” However, it’s important to note that these earlier stories may not significantly influence the narrative as anticipated.

In simpler terms, while the movie Earth explores similar philosophical questions about humanity’s role in the universe as Scott’s prequels, the creator of Earth, Hawley, prefers the alien creatures from the original Alien film because they seem more believable and well-developed. He explained on KCRW that this ‘perfect life form’ from the first movie is likely the result of millions of years of evolution in space, making it a creature that could have been around for a million years. The idea that such an alien was created only half an hour ago (as implied by some interpretations of the Alien series) doesn’t appeal to him because it seems less realistic and useful for the story.

In his further discussion, the showrunner expressed his desire to maintain the “retro-futuristic tech” from the initial two Alien films for the prequels. He pointed out that Ridley Scott made the technology in the prequels far more advanced than what should be seen in the future of the Alien movies, which didn’t sit well with him. Instead, he favors the retro-futuristic style of the first two films. As a result, he opted to exclude holograms and the sleek technology you might find in an Apple store from his vision for the series.

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2025-08-13 01:06