This summer, FX is premiering its new Alien television show Alien: Earth, from the mind of Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley. The Xenomorph's first TV series sees it crash to Earth aboard a space vessel which has captured five dangerous alien species from the darkest corners of the universe. Obviously, it will get out and wreak havoc, as it does.
Earlier this month, FX dropped the first proper trailer for the series, showing how hybrid synthetic Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and her team are dispatched to retrieve the vessel's cargo from the urban metropolis of Prodigy City. And I'll admit, the trailer looks pretty awesome. It nails the tone and vibe of the Alien films, especially recalling the original 1979 masterpiece from Ridley Scott. The cast is good, the glimpses of the Xenomorph we get are creepy, and there's enough mystery surrounding those other four predatory aliens that I'm really looking forward to watching the big reveals.
There's just one problem: the premise of the show totally undermines the movies, and it's seriously hampering my ability to get excited for it.
Alien: Earth should have been a sequel instead of a prequel
Outside of the much-maligned Alien vs. Predator movies, we've never had a proper Alien story set on Earth. I've always wondered what that would be like, and the fact that Hawley is going there should be cause for immediate excitement for any longtime fan of the franchise.
The big hitch that is preventing me from getting fully on board with Alien: Earth is that this is a prequel that takes place two years before the first Alien movie. All four of the original run of Alien films starring Sigourney Weaver were done by different directors and had wildly different tones, but they had one core idea in common: the Aliens could never be allowed to reach Earth, or they would almost certainly wipe out the human race. But the corporate powers of Earth didn't care about the danger, and were always trying to pull the strings to procure a Xenomorph or facehugger in order to use them for bioweapons research. In all four of those movies, Ripley manages to prevent the Aliens from making their way to Earth.
Alien: Earth certainly looks like it will capture the depravity of corporations trying to get their hands on deadly life forms for their own gain, regardless of who gets hurt along the way. Tonally, the trailer makes it feel like it could inhabit that sweet spot between the chilling terror of Scott's original and the epic scope of James Cameron's 1986 sequel, Aliens. But when it comes to the timeline, it makes no sense at all.
Having Xenomorphs appear on Earth two years before the original film means Ripley's struggles were completely in vain, since presumably, humanity managed to kill the alien off before it could cause too much trouble on this first trip to Earth; otherwise the original movie couldn't have happened. We know going into Alien: Earth that the threat will be largely averted, because the entire rest of the franchise depends on it.
A large part of me wishes that Alien: Earth was a sequel instead of a prequel. Then instead of this strange liminal space where it's not totally clear how the show will or won't undermine the movies, we'd get a story where, in spite of Ripley's best efforts, the Xenomorph still one day makes it to humanity's homeworld. It would have felt more like a culmination of what's come before, rather than a story which seems destined to be strangled by its own franchise limitations.
Alien: Earth will probably seek to answer a key question from Alien
So that's my rant about why I'm struggling to get on board with Alien: Earth, despite thinking the trailer looks very promising. There are few series I've been a fan of as long as Alien, and perhaps that's to my detriment when it comes to thinking about the timeline. I really hope that Noah Hawley changes my mind with the show, but until I see it, this fatal flaw of the timeline is going to remain a thorn in my side.
All that said, I do have a feeling that this show will answer one of the biggest lingering questions from the original Alien movie. In the film, the crew of the Nostromo stumbles across a distress beacon emanating from the storm-wracked planet LV-426, where they discover a ruined ship filled with facehugger eggs. After one of the crew members is attacked and impregnated by a facehugger, and the ship returns to orbit, the terrifying struggle to survive aboard the deep space vessel ensues.
Late in the movie it comes out that the ship's science officer, Ash (Ian Holm), is a synthetic android who is working at the behest of the Weyland-Yutani corporation. The company's orders are to bring home the Xenomorph for study, and Ash nearly kills Ripley to ensure it survives the long trip home.
It's been a long-gestating fan theory that the Weyland-Yutani company sent the Nostromo to LV-426 on purpose, knowing what they would find there. That fits neatly with the idea of the company seeking this dangerous alien lifeform regardless of the cost or risks to humanity. But it raises a large question: how did Weyland-Yutani know about the Xenomorph in the first place?
It seems likely that Alien: Earth will fill in that gap. The ship that crashes into Prodigy City found a Xenomorph or facehugger somewhere in the dark recesses of the universe and brought it to Earth. After a fraught television series, someone on Earth — I'm assuming Wendy — will manage to kill it and destroy its remains to prevent Weyland-Yutani or any of its corporate rivals from studying it. And at that point, the company will direct another ship to pass by the place where that facehugger was originally found in hopes of getting another: the Nostromo.
That's my running theory, at least. We'll see how Alien: Earth navigates it all when it premieres August 12 on Hulu and FX.
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