At San Diego Comic-Con 2025 today, the first episode of Alien: Earth was shown to the audience in the massive Hall H, ahead of the show’s premiere on FX and Hulu.
Though trailers and casting notices had given us a lot of initial information about the show, we now have a much clearer idea about its central storyline and characters and where the story (guided by Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley) might go.
Warning! Spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 1 follow:
Humanity (or One Company at Least) is Well Aware Aliens Exist
In 1979’s Alien, when the crew of the Nostromo encounter the petrified “Space Jockey” alien, before finding xenomorph eggs nearby, though nothing is explicitly stated, they don’t react in shock, as though humanity has never encountered an alien species. Prometheus of course would eventually firmly establish an encounter between humans and multiple alien species well before this, though it’s not clear if any of this information ever reached Earth (or if that movie even counts, canon-wise, to Alien: Earth).
But in Alien: Earth, it’s clear that at least within Weyland-Yutani, by 2120, there is an established familiarity with other alien species, as we meet the crew of the Maginot — who were explicitly sent into deep space with a mission to collect samples of multiple species, one of which is the xenomorph (whether they knew anything about any of these species beforehand though remains to be seen).
Synths, Cyborgs and Hybrids, Oh My
Onscreen text at the start of the premiere informs us that by 2120, there are essentially three different methods that have been developed in the hopes of achieving immortality.
-Synths are the androids we’ve met many times in the Alien series, going back to Ian Holm’s Ash in the original 1979 film. These are fully synthetic beings run by AI.
-Cyborgs are, as you might expect, a human with cybernetic upgrades
-Hybrids are a human’s consciousness downloaded into a synthetic body, which is brand new tech as Alien: Earth begins.
We’re told whichever one of these technologies that prevails will “rule the universe” — which one assumes means synths must be the winner, given we know they are used long into the future through centuries of Alien stories. There may be a bit of wiggle room, since all the previous Alien stories took place in space, so who knows what’s been going on back on Earth?
5 Corporations to Rule Them All
It turns out that in 2120, the Earth has five dominant corporations who pretty much rule everything by this point. Three of them are, at least initially, offscreen elements, though we’re told one of those three is named Dynamic.
The show’s initial focus though is on the ever-looming Alien threat of Weyland-Yutani and their most recent rival: the decade-old company Prodigy, who have become the first to create hybrids. Again, we’ve only seen Weyland-Yutani in the other Alien movies, so it seems all but certain they’re the company who achieves total dominance, going hand in hand with synths becoming the dominant “immortality” tech. But, as with most prequels where we basically know the outcome, Alien: Earth presumably will answer some questions about how this came to be.
In Alien: Earth, the Prodigy/Weyland-Yutani rivalry is escalated when the Manginot crashes into Prodigy City (you can guess which company runs that one). Prodigy’s founder, Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) is determined to claim whatever’s on the ship for himself… something that certainly won’t go over well with Weyland-Yutani, given it’s their ship and their samples.
Of course a big problem for everyone is that none of the aliens on the ship, starting with the xenomorph, are happy with any humans controlling them.
Alien vs… The Shazam Family?
It was announced some time ago that Alien: Earth’s main character, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) is a hybrid, someone who was a human before being put into a synthetic body. Beyond that though, Wendy was a terminally ill girl named Marcy and she is in fact the first-ever hybrid. As it turns out, the new hybrid technology won’t work for grown-ups yet, so only children can be chosen for the process.
And quickly, Wendy is not alone, as more sick children also go through the process (and, like Wendy, choose names of Peter Pan characters for their new identities): Slightly (Adarsh Gourav); Tootles (Kit Young); Smee (Jonathan Ajayi); Curly (Erana James); and Nibs (Lily Newmark). Like Wendy, all of them have enhanced strength beyond a normal human and soon, Wendy and the others are being seen by Prodigy as a team of sorts. Which on one hand, given they are child minds in super strong bodies that look like adults, has a certain Shazam family vibe. But on the other hand, when a cooperation is sending kids — no matter what their physical form is — into potential battle, there’s also a certain ominous child soldier vibe to it all. We’ll have to see what direction Alien: Earth goes with this group (dubbed, naturally, the Lost Boys) but again, it’s hard not to think about the lack of any hybrids in any other installment of the franchise and not be concerned things won’t work out so great for them.
Brother’s Keeper
A core element of the show looks to be the sibling dynamic between Wendy and her brother, Hermit (Andor’s Alex Lawther), a medic in a Prodigy-run Search and Rescue group who is totally unaware of her new synthetic/adult existence. But when Wendy learns he’s in potential danger, she is determined to do everything she can to help him… and likely give him one hell of a big surprise, given the last time he saw her, only one of them was an adult.
Yutani is Coming
While the looming presence of Weyland-Yutani and their rivalry with Prodigy is established from the very start, notably, we also get a quick mention of Yutani herself in the series premiere, giving us a nod to this never-before-seen company head. Ridley Scott’s Prometheus introduced us to Peter Weyland, from an earlier generation, but Alien: Earth is the first time we meet someone from the other side of the company name in a live-action Alien project.
Alien Rocks!
As a space and future-set sci-fi/horror series, Alien has typically stuck with orchestral music throughout its existence. But Noah Hawley is mixing things up with Alien: Earth, which obviously has a different vibe to it based on its title and setting. And while Jeff Russo provides an appropriately intense and atmospheric score throughout the show’s premiere, Hawley also layers in some actual songs at different points, which includes a classic song by none other than Black Sabbath playing over the closing credits.
We’ll let you find out which song it is (I will say it’s not an Ozzy Osbourne-era Sabbath tune) when the series debuts August 12 on FX and Hulu.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
