Everything to know about ‘Alien: Earth' as trailer drops: Timeline, cast, premiere date
An alien invasion is about to hit FX on Hulu.
Alien: Earth is a sci-fi thriller that's set two years before the events of the influential first Alien film. Created by Noah Hawley (Fargo), the TV project focuses on the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the race to create new android life. (And yes, there will be Xenomorphs and Facehuggers.) This marks the first major television series based on the franchise, which already consists of seven main movies and two crossovers with Predator. Read on for everything to know about Alien: Earth.
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Mark your calendars! Alien: Earth will debut with two episodes on Aug. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FX and Hulu, and will air every subsequent Tuesday until the Sept. 23 finale. The network is hoping this will be its next Shōgun, a big budget epic that will sweep upcoming awards shows and drive viewership numbers.
FX
Sydney Chandler leads the ensemble as Wendy, an adult woman with a child's consciousness. Timothy Olyphant plays Kirsh, a synthetic who serves as Wendy's mentor. Alex Lawther is a soldier named CJ "Hermit." Samuel Blenkin portrays Boy Kavalier, a young CEO who's often seen barefoot. The sprawling cast also includes Babou Ceesay, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Essie Davis, Lily Newmark, Erana James, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Kit Young, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El, and Sandra Yi Sencindiver.
Alien: Earth is a prequel to the 1979 Alien movie, directed by Ridley Scott and conceived by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. That original story took place in 2122 aboard the commercial spaceship Nostromo, which places Alien: Earth in the year 2120. In other words, Sigourney Weaver's iconic character Ripley is still alive and well within the world of Alien: Earth. But whether she'll pop up in the new project remains to be seen.
FX
From FX: "In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named Wendy marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani's spaceship collides into Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined."
Noah Hawley is the showrunner, executive producer, writer, and director for Alien: Earth. Additional executive producers are Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Joseph Iberti, Dana Gonzales, and Clayton Krueger. Hawley, Gonzales, and Ugla Hauksdóttir tag-teamed on directing the eight episodes, while Hawley wrote or cowrote all of them with Bob DeLaurentis, Bobak Esfarjani, Lisa Long, Maria Melnik, and Migizi Pensoneau. Jeff Russo is the music composer, and cinematography duties are split between Dana Gonzales, Bella Gonzales, and Colin Watkinson.
On June 5, FX released a two-minute trailer for Alien: Earth that begins with a 10-second countdown featuring frightening and atmospheric images. (Watch the video above.) A prompt informs viewers that the setting is "Neverland Research Island, Earth, 2120," as we see Wendy's child consciousness being implanted into a woman's body. Later, when a spacecraft crashes into Prodigy City, it's all hands on deck to uncover who, or what, might be on board.
20th Century Fox
While the Academy Awards are notorious for ignoring sci-fi and fantasy films, voters have expressed a special adoration for the franchise that gave the world slimy creatures like Xenomorphs and Facehuggers. The first Alien won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and was also nominated for Best Art Direction. The sequel, aptly titled Aliens (1986), won a pair of Oscars for Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing, and received bids for Best Actress (Weaver), Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Music. Alien 3 (1992) then scored a single nom for Best Visual Effects. The fourth installment, Alien Resurrection (1997), was skunked, while the fifth edition, Prometheus (2012), nabbed a Best Visual Effects citation. Following that, Alien: Covenant (2017) was ignored, and Alien: Romulus (2024) returned to the Best Visual Effects lineup. The two crossover films, Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), were both snubbed.
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