Alien: Earth Pits Humanity Against the Ultimate Predator

FX and Hulu’s prequel series Alien: Earth is on its way, and it’s just one month away from premiering on August 12. In the meantime, the streamers have dropped one last trailer (alongside a complete synopsis) to tease fans about the upcoming thriller that reportedly looks both chilling and cerebral. The new trailer weaves meditative, almost existentialistic montages with classic sci-fi horror imagery: an ominous alien ship gliding weightlessly in deep space, a handful of dead, lifeless bodies crumpled across a dimly lit corridor, a group of bloodied humans rushing to escape their fate, and, off in the distance, a grimacing, elongated form silhouetted in the shadows.

Showrunner Noah Hawley has been vocal in his claims that Alien: Earth will hew closer to Ridley Scott’s first film in tone and mythology, rather than the more abstract works of later prequels like Prometheus or Alien: Covenant. The eight-episode series takes place in 2120, two years before the events of Alien (1979), in a near-future world where cutthroat corporate interests all vie for control of the human race’s biggest bounty: life (and possibly even the keys to immortality).

Alien: Earth Expands on Familiar Corporate, Hybrid Franchise Backstory

Per the latest series synopsis, the Earth of Alien: Earth’s near-future 2120 is no longer ruled by governments and politicians. The five major powers now are mega-corporations like Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. This is known as the Corporate Era, in which cyborgs (humans with technological or mechanical augmentations) and synthetics (humanoid robots controlled by artificial intelligence) coexist under strict corporate rule. However, things take a sharp turn when the Founder and CEO of the Prodigy Corporation (a 20-something prodigy with a promising future in science) perfects a new invention: hybrids, humanoid robots infused with a human consciousness.

Sydney Chandler’s Wendy is the first such creation. The model’s bio teases her being “the body of an adult and the consciousness of a child.” As the progenitor of a new breed in the scramble for scientific immortality, Wendy will be caught in the middle of a chain reaction of events that will change humanity forever.

The brief period of peace and tranquility is broken when a spaceship belonging to Weyland-Yutani Corporation crash-lands into the heart of Prodigy City. In the following days, Wendy and several other hybrids become exposed to several unknown alien organisms—lifeforms that are ultimately far deadlier than anything humanity has ever seen before.

Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, and a Bunch of Brilliant Faces Join Chandler

Timothy Olyphant plays Kirsh, a synthetic mentor and trainer to Wendy. Alex Lawther is CJ, a soldier, while Samuel Blenkin is Boy Kavalier, the calculating CEO. Essie Davis is Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav plays Slightly. Kit Young is Tootles, and David Rysdahl is Arthur. Babou Ceesay is Morrow, Jonathan Ajayi is Smee, Erana James is Curly, Lily Newmark is Nibs, Diem Camille is Siberian, and Adrian Edmondson is Atom Eins.

FX and Hulu Show Their Cards

FX and Hulu have slowly revealed the mysteries of Alien: Earth over the past several months. The streamers first dropped a surprise short teaser trailer during January’s NFL AFC Championship game. That 15-second trailer was shot entirely from a xenomorph’s perspective. It showed the killer alien as it quickly stalked down a hallway of a spaceship doomed to crash land on Earth’s surface. With no contextual clues, the sickly POV sequence was instant meme fodder for fans.

Last month, FX and Hulu went public with the first full trailer that offered a broader picture. The reveal began with the show’s previously teased dramatic foundation of Wendy’s human creation in 2120, on the Neverland Research Island. When an alien spaceship crash-landed close by, Wendy immediately offered to retrieve the potentially valuable goods from the alien ship. What she found wasn’t a scientific breakthrough but a grisly mass murder. In the ship’s broken bowels, there were five alien lifeforms: unknown, xenomorph-class species that were gruesomely ripped from life by some beast of unknown origin. Still, in true Alien movie fashion, the five alien species were brought back for study in a lab environment.

The prospect of scientific overconfidence intersecting with some apex predator has been foreboding for both scientists and citizens ever since the beginning of humanity’s expansion into the galaxy. As the new trailer goes to show, Alien: Earth is less focused on action and more focused on atmosphere. It weaves in and out of its cast of morally gray characters, corporate greed, and scientific advancement as the prelude to a complete catastrophe.

As Hawley homes in on texture and world-building over all-out xenomorph-on-display spectacle, it promises to go above and beyond simple monster movie tropes. By embracing the claustrophobic tension and maddening questions of morality that made the original Alien film so timeless, Alien: Earth will present an intricate science fiction, horror, and suspense genre blend.

With Alien: Earth on the way, this might be a love letter to the original film while at the same time expanding its alien universe with even more imaginative details and possibilities. Will Wendy’s young, innocent mind survive all of the horrors and chaos waiting for her in the world outside of the lab? Can humanity’s innate hubris be overcome? Stay tuned when FX and Hulu’s Alien: Earth premieres on August 12.