'Alien: Planet Earth' brings xenomorphs to television and Earth for the first time.
Noah Hawley directs, accompanied by Ridley Scott in production, a prequel set two years before the original film.
BarcelonaThis August, the franchiseAlienmakes the definitive leap to the small screen and, for the first time, brings its terror to our planet.Alien: Planet Earth, a new production set in the universe created more than four decades ago by Ridley Scott, premieres this Wednesday, August 13 on Disney+ with the first two episodes. The rest, up to the eight episodes of the season, will arrive weekly every Wednesday. It is the first non-animated series in the saga, with Noah Hawley, director of Fargo, at the helm and Scott as executive producer.
The story, conceived as a prequel, sets the action in the year 2120, two years before the events ofAlien(1979) and well before the three films that followed before the recent films, which again set back. In this future, Earth is ruled by five large corporations—Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold—in a world where humans, cyborgs, and synthetics coexist. The turning point comes with the creation of Wendy, the first hybrid with a robotic body and human consciousness. The discovery sparks a global race for immortality. In the midst of this scenario, the crash of the spaceshipMaginote–owned by Weyland-Yutani– in Prodigy City and the operation of a group of tactical soldiers and Wendy to investigate it will reveal alien life forms more terrifying than anyone could imagine.
Hawley has explained that the series will largely ignore the events ofPrometheus(2012) andAlien: Covenant(2017). The goal is to balance action and suspense with reflections on power, technology, and the human condition. FX has confirmed that no characters from the films will appear, including Ellen Ripley, although Hawley hasn't ruled out establishing connections to the original film in future seasons. The cast includes Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Babou Ceesay, Samuel Blenkin, David Rysdahl, and other international names.
The cultural impact ofAlienhelps to understand the dimension of that launch. In 1979, Ridley Scott, with a script by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, released a film that had begun with the provisional title ofStar BeastThe success ofStar Warsconvinced Fox to invest more resources, and the result was a classic of horror and science fiction cinema: with a budget of 14 million dollars, it grossed around 188 worldwide. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the Nostromo ship, H.R. Giger's biomechanical design, Weyland-Yutani's critique of corporate greed, and the emergence of the heroine Ellen Ripley – played by Sigourney Weaver – laid the foundations for a narrative universe that continues to inspire.
The saga has evolved with each release.Aliens(1986), by James Cameron, transformed claustrophobic terror into a military action epic with space marines. The third installment, Alien³ (1992), marked David Fincher's directorial debut, but also suffered a chaotic production with script changes and a rushed production company. Alien Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and written by Joss Whedon, opted for a more grotesque and experimental tone. The 2000s saw crossovers withPredator, while Scott recovered the franchise withPrometheusandAlien: Covenant, prequels that expanded the mythological background. In 2024Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Álvarez, grossed over $350 million at the box office and the commercial record was confirmed.
In over forty years, the xenomorph has become an icon of space horror. Its metallic yet organic aesthetic and parasitic life cycle have inspired comics – the only media in which they had already reached Earth – novels, collector's figures, video games and television tributes, fromStranger ThingsuntilThe ExpanseDespite this influence, no live-action series had come to fruition until now. There were unsuccessful attempts, such as a project for ABC in the 1980s, the animated seriesOperation: Aliens(1992) orAliens: War Games(2007), never completed. The only television precedent isAlien: Isolation - The Digital Series(2019), an animated web series based on the video game of the same name.
The official announcement ofAlien: Planet EarthIt arrived in 2020, during Disney's Investor Day, as a determined bet to take the franchise to new territory, set on Earth, with an established creative team and without relying on classic characters. If it manages to live up to expectations, the series could open a new era forAlien, beyond nostalgia, and consolidate itself as a creative revitalization of one of the most recognizable mythologies of contemporary cinema.
