At seven feature-length films in total (without counting the Predator offshoots), the Alien franchise has chapters upon chapters of canon. What started with the characters introduced in Ridley Scott’s 1979 film that spawned a franchise has now grown over multiple stories, personalities, and timelines. The most recent flick, Fede Álvarez’s summer blockbuster favorite, Alien: Romulus, found its place in the stars between Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens, and soon, it will be in good company.
During a visit to the set of FX’s upcoming live-action series, Alien: Earth, at which Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff was in attendance, the project’s creator, Noah Hawley (Fargo), spoke about what to expect. Knowing that the dedicated fandom would be eager to learn about how the story fits into the universe of Alien, Hawley was asked about when the story is set in the vast and continually expanding franchise. Teasing the existence of Alien: Earth somewhere in the franchise’s sprawling timeline, Hawley said:
“I think we exist somewhere around Aliens, around the James Cameron story. I haven’t had to get crazy specific with it, but the events of the first film are referenced in the show at some point. So, I think it’s somewhere around the events of the second film, either before or just after.”
In the grand scheme of things, the very first live-action episodic iteration of the story will come towards the end of the timeline as we know it. Because Hawley doesn’t give a definitive before or after answer to Alien: Earth’s connection to Aliens, it’s unclear whether Alien: Romulus would be before, after, or perhaps even during the events of the FX show. What we do know is that everything that happened in Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and Alien came before, with Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection following, while the two Predator crossover films are kind of off doing their own thing.
‘Alien: Earth’ Will Hold Onto Its Roots
During their chat, Nemiroff and Hawley each alluded to how the very premise of Alien is really about blue-collar workers. In all the movies, Weyland-Yutani is the omnipresent corporation that keeps its workers trapped under its thumb, putting their lives on the line to make a fortune. While Alien: Earth might look different, as it’s moving to humanity’s home territory, the very foundation of what the franchise is built upon hasn’t been changed, with Hawley explaining:
“I don’t think that in the ‘80s and the ‘70s, they could have envisioned the Elon Musks of the world at that point. So, corporate, yes, but we’re in a different era, and I felt like in order to make it feel contemporary, we needed to address that idea that this whole thing is sort of the whim of this prodigy, and that what you get in a corporation is a diffused decision system, where nobody actually decides. It’s nobody’s fault, and therefore it doesn’t have to be a human decision. I think what we’ve reached now is something worse in a way.
I think about that Twilight Zone episode where there’s the kid who has all the powers, and everyone around him has to act like all they want to do is make him happy and keep him happy. There’s something so awful about having to please someone who doesn’t have a rational view of the world, or is subject to whims. So, I think that’s the spin on it that we brought to it, and that the Weyland-Yutani side is more of that corporate identity.”
Alien: Earth lands on FX and FX on Hulu on August 12.
via Collider