FX’sAlien: Earthis going to change theAlienfranchise, which has already earned $1.6 billion, forever. Withseven canonAlienmovies- plus two spinoffs in the form of theAlien vs. Predatorduology -Alienhas become a massive franchise. The upcoming TV showAlien: Earthis going to expand that franchise even further, but it’ll do it in a wayAlienhas never seen before.
As the show’s August 12 release date continues to draw nearer, we’ve gotten more information about the upcomingAlienshow.Alien: Earth’s newest trailer, for example, showed even more of the series' new species, its hybrid synthetics, and a Xenomorph on Earth. Even a month away fromAlien: Earth’s premiere, it’s clear that the show is going to change theAlienfranchise forever.
Alien: Earth Is Alien’s First TV Show
Alien Has Released Movies, Comics, Books, & More, But Earth Is Opening Up A Whole New Medium
Alienis a massive franchise. As previously mentioned, there are seven canon movies and two dubiously canon spinoffs, but there are also comics, books, short stories, video games, merchandise, and even theme park rides. TheAlienfranchise has become a behemoth in the 46 years since the originalAlienwas released, butAlien: Earthis still the first time the franchise has ever produced a television show.
There was technically a web series in theAlienfranchise.IGNproduced a limited, seven-episode webseries in 2019, but it was a direct adaptation of the video gameAlien: Isolation. Therefore,Alien: Earthis breaking new ground for theAlienfranchise. Television is essentially the only medium the franchise hasn’t gotten to yet, andEarthis the first.
Alien: Earth Is Finally Bringing The Franchise To Earth
Alien vs. Predator Did Go To Earth, But This Is The First Time Alien Has Prominently Featured Earth In Canon
Alien: Earthisn’t just the first timeAlienhas gone to a serialized format, it’s also the first time it’s gone to Earth.Alienhas always been a spacefaring franchise. Every movie has primarily taken place either on a spacecraft or on an alien world, and we never knew much about Earth.Alien vs. Predatordid bring the franchise to Earth, but that series was dubiously canon at best.
Prior toAlien: Earth, the most we ever saw of Earth was during brief moments at the beginning ofAlien: Covenantand at the end ofAlien Resurrection. The novels dive a bit deeper into humanity’s home planet, butAlienwas never very interested in Earth.Alien: Earth, however, is clearly taking an interest in the planet; it’s right there in the title.
With the new focus on Earth,Alien: Earthalso gets to do some things none of theAlienfilms have had a chance to. For instance,Earthis focusing on the Yutanihalf of Weyland-Yutani, andthe entire show will be exploring the corporate monopolies that dominate.Earthwill also get to dive deeper into the motivations behind their actions and their experiments with the Xenomorphs.
The Timeline Of Alien: Earth Has Massive Implications For The Movies
Alien: Earth Takes Place Between Covenant & The Original Alien & Could Change Everything
Yet another unique aspect ofAlien: Earthis its position inthe widerAlientimeline.Earthtakes place in 2120, just two years before the events of the originalAlienand the destruction of theNostromo. That year also placesEarth16 years after the events ofAlien: Covenant. It’s smack-dab between two of the most open-ended moments inAlien, which presents almost unlimited opportunities.
Because of its position in the timeline,Earthcan completely change bothPrometheusandCovenantas well as the mainAlienfilms. This is all speculative, butEarthcould do anything from giving an update on theCovenantand what David did with its passengers toexplaining how and why theNostromowas diverted to LV-426in the original movie.
TheCovenant’s fate was briefly mentioned inAlientabletop roleplaying games, butAlien: Earthor other future movies could easily overwrite them.
Alien: Earthbasically has a chance to recontextualize the entire franchise. It can change theNostromo’s fate from a simple moment of bad luck to an orchestrated and violent example of corporate greed. It can give Ridley Scott’s unfinished prequel trilogy a new lease on life and a chance to finally be finished. It can also explain more of Weyland-Yutani’s story than any otherAlienstory has thus far.
Alien Will Never Be The Same Again After Alien: Earth
Earth Opens The Door For New Alien Shows, More Stories Set On Earth, New Species, Focusing On Hybrid Synthetics, & So Much More
It’s clear thatAlien: Earthis breaking a lot of barriers and doing a lot of firsts for theAlienfranchise, but that’s not all it’s doing.AfterAlien: Earth, theAlienfranchise will simply never be the same again. So many of the thingsEarthis doing for the first time are going to change the franchise and the way newAlienstories are told.
Perhaps the best example is that television shows are now fair game for futureAlienstories.Earthbroke the mold:Alienis no longer primarily a film franchise with some side efforts in other mediums, it’s now both a film and television series. There could easily be anAlien: Earthseason 2, or a new upcomingAlienshow may decide to also take a serialized format.
Alien: Earth is a point of no return for the Alien franchise, and it’ll never be the same.
It also opens the door to future stories that are set on Earth.The proverbial dam has been broken byAlien: Earth, and there’s now ample opportunity for a new project to revisit the planet.Aliencould do anything from showing more of the fallout ofAlien: Earthto explaining why the planet was almost entirely abandoned by the time ofAlien Resurrection.
Alien: Earthalso has two new massive additions toAlienlore in general: its new hostile lifeforms and its new human-synthetic hybrids.Earth’s new hostile alienscould pave the way to a futureAlienshow that doesn’t even feature the Xenomorphs, while the human-synthetic hybrids could completely change the wayAlien’s androidsare viewed.
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Earthisn’t just opening doors for theAlienfranchise, however, it’s a turning point. We can’t go back to just focusing on Xenomorphs now that we know there are so many other fascinating hostile life forms in the wider universe. We can’t go back to ignoring Earth now that we’ve gotten a hint at the corporate intrigue and biological arms race going on there.Alien: Earthis a point of no return for theAlienfranchise, and it’ll never be the same.
