Horror Beat: ALIEN: EARTH makes every single dollar of its 250 million pricetag count

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Alien: Earth is the latest entry in the groundbreaking and beloved sci-fi horror franchise that started in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s masterful Alien.

The series starts onboard the USCSS Maginot, a deep-space research vessel owned by Weyland-Yutani that carries samples of five dangerous extraterrestrial species, including the fearsome Xenomorph. When the ship crash-lands into the Prodigy corporation-controlled city of New Siam, all hell breaks loose, as the machinations of teenage billionaire Boy Kavelier (Samuel Blenkin) quickly lead to a powder keg on the verge of an explosion.

Alien: Earth is the franchise’s first live-action television series. The first season will consist of eight episodes and air throughout August and September 2025.

Alien: Earth – A History

The series was initially announced in February 2019, shortly before the completion of 20th Century Fox‘s sale to The Walt Disney Company. In December 2020, it was confirmed that Noah Hawley (of Legion and Fargo fame) would be the lead creative and showrunner of the series, with Scott acting as executive producer.

Over the next two years, further details would be announced, placing the series as a prequel to the original Alien movie, but not following any of the plot threads from Scott’s prequel duology. The most exciting prospect of it, however, was the announcement that the series would be set on Earth – whilst our home planet has been hinted at and briefly seen in the franchise before, it was never to the extent offered by the show. Carrying an impressive 250 million dollar pricetag, Alien: Earth breaks new ground for the legendary franchise, weaving in the old with the new.

Alien: Earth is set two years before the original film, on an earth where five mega-corporations control the entire planet. One of these, Weyland-Yutani, is sure to be familiar to long-term fans of the franchise, as they are the primary antagonist across much of the franchise, including in last year’s Alien: Romulus. They own both Americas, as well as seemingly some parts of Asia and Europe. The other major player for this series is Prodigy, who was founded by ‘the world’s youngest trillionaire’ Boy Kavelier, whose interested in immortality, as many characters in this franchise are.

Kavelier’s solution is the invention of ‘hybrids’ – terminally ill children whose minds are copied into a digital consciousness and implanted into synthetic bodies. The first of these hybrids is Wendy (Sydney Chandler), our main character, who is on a quest to find and take care of her older brother Joe (Alex Lawther), a medic for Prodigy’s Security Service. Complicated enough premise for you? Luckily, the show takes the bulk of the first two episodes to unpack this initial premise, so it doesn’t feel as overwhelming to take in piece by piece as opposed to attempting to summarising it across one paragraph.

Wendy is the supposed leader of ‘The Lost Boys’, a group of six prototype hybrids all named after characters from Peter Pan. Their mentor is the synthetic Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), whilst their caretaker is Dame Sylvia (Esse Davis).

The show heavily deals with questions of mortality, existence and humanity, utilising Alien’s futuristic setting to explore notions of agency, nature and what it means to be alive. If The Lost Boys act and sound like children, and have the memories of being children, are they? Even if they aren’t human? How do their experiences impact them if they have the maturity level of a child, and how might that lack of maturity be used against them? When is a machine not a machine?

This is a show deeply interested in ideas, and in that way funnily enough feels in sync with Scott’s prequel duology, even if Alien: Earth is mostly abandoning any plot threads from those films, apart from a brief appearence by my beloved mysterious black goo. Those familiar with Hawley’s work will probably be able to easier appreciate this series, but I do think Hawley is being far more playful this time around. He’s always been committed to making entertaining television that is deeply moving and thoughtful, but there’s a certain looseness to his work here that makes me think he’s having a lot of fun with this setting and series.

Will long-time Alien franchise fans like this series?

Alongside this philosophical science fiction narrative is a plot closer to what franchise fans might expect, focused on the mayhem caused by five deadly alien species on the loose within the Prodigy corporation’s domain. One of these is the fan-favorite Xenomorph, the titular alien that has appeared in every franchise entry to date. All of the alien species are interesting, terrifying and exhilirating in equal measure, and whilst none quite stack up to the Xeno, they are all awesome in their own ways, particularly the horrifying T Ocellus, an eyeball creature with octopus-like limbs that invades its prey’s skull and takes control of their limp and lifeless body.

It’s fun seeing more alien species in the franchise, expanding the scope and making it clear that the universe is filled to the brim with terrifying and nightmarish monsters lurking in the dark. Hunting for these species is the cyborg Morrow (Babou Ceesay), the former Security Officer of the Maginot, under the firm instructions of the Weyland-Yutani corporation. His predatory plotting threatens the very foundation of The Lost Boys, and given that later franchise entries don’t reference Prodigy at all, seemingly the foundation of Kavalier’s company itself.

The series script’s are mainly handled by Hawley, but also feature contributions from Bob DeLaurentis, Bobak Esfarjani, Lisa Long and Migizi Pensoneau. The script is smart and efficient, very rarely feeling like it’s wasting scenes or moving at too slow a pace. It does take its time, but every moment feels important, and you either keep up or you don’t. It’s a show that expects you to pay attention and care, which is refreshing in the franchise space. Occasional jokes and references don’t quite work, like the much derided Ice Age reference in the first two episodes of the show, but for the most part the show is intelligently written at every turn.

Highlights of the scripting include any scene where Morrow is attempting to manipulate Slightly (Adarsh Gourav), which come across as deeply disturbing and uncomfortable, as well as the scenes where Kirsh is lecturing Wendy on human nature. When the show focuses on horror and action, it still works, but it really shines during dialogue sequences, thanks to the brilliant efforts of the writing team.

Alien: Earth makes every single dollar of that 250 million pricetag count

Technically, the show looks superb. It makes every single dollar of that 250 million pricetag count, emphasizing real sets and locations much like Andor. It’s entirely to the show’s benefit, as it looks absolutely beautiful, with gorgeously rendered locations that are striking in how well they fit the visual style of the 1979 film.

It’s also beautifully shot, featuring great work from the cinematography and editing teams and giving the series its own distinct visual identity that works within the franchise’s larger style. The special effects are tremendous, too, including a practical Xenomorph that is visibly an actor in a suit, bringing me an infinite amount of joy.

It’s great to see this series actually put its budget to use, and refreshing what a creative team is able to do when given the appropriate time and funds to make something work.

Wendy, our lead character, is an interesting case. Chandler is doing a good job in her performance, balancing out Wendy’s childlike naivety and innocence with a single-minded determination and focus that makes her a compelling character. She has some sort of psychic or emotional connection to the Xenomorph, which is an interesting idea in theory but often leads to mixed results and can be a little grating and frustrating. As a protagonist, she works for what this story is trying to focus on, but I would not be surprised if later seasons or entries move away from her as the lead of this particularly era and story.

Lawther does a good job as her brother Joe, doing his best attempt at an American accent but often slipping out of it at the worst times. For much of the story, he isn’t necessarily given that much to do, but he makes his important moments count.

Unfortunately, Wendy and Joe are probably the part of the show that works for me the least, which can be frustrating because they are ostensibly the leads of the show. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I just struggle to get invested in their story, when there are so many more interesting things happening around them.

The series primary antagonist forces are Kavalier and Morrow. Kavalier actor Blenkin is a highlight of the show, one of the most fascinating and brilliant performances in the franchise yet. He avoids the temtpation to fall into a simple parody of any current billionaire and instead makes Kavalier feel like his own character, an eccentric who is limited by his own desire to remain youthful. A prodigy is only special because they’re young, and so the older Kavalier gets, the more his idea of himself slips through his hands, and he’s desperate to keep as firm a hand on it as possible.

Ceesay’s Morrow is the greatest performer in the series, bar none. He is such an incredible screen presence, and every time his character is around you can’t help but put full focus and attention on him. He’s menacing at every turn, but you can’t resist watching him, and it’s a truly masterful antagonist performance that is sure to go down as an all-timer television performance. I hope to see Ceesay in more roles after this, because he’s a remarkable actor.

Davis, David Rysdahl and Adrian Edmondson all do a good job with what they’re given, but mainly function as supporting players for the other actors to have chemistry and bounce off of. Olyphant’s Kirsh is the highlight of this group of characters, and I promise I’m not just saying that as someone who really likes Justified. He brings a cold and uncanny energy to the role, fitting firmly within the creepiness and terror of other villainous synthetics from the series… without even necessarily needing to do anything villainous. As a demented scientist, his calculating and unnerving approach is mesmerising to watch, and he stands out as truly one of the best characters in the series. He also has a lot of tension and chemistry with scene partner Blenkin, with their dialogue exchanges consistently one of my favorite parts of the show.

The Lost Boys all do good work with their various performances, and each of them are individually given moments to shine and make an impression. There are debatably too many of them to fully invest into, but a few of them manage to genuinely standout thanks to fantastic performances. These include Erana James‘ Curly, whose jealousy over Wendy puts her straight into the controlling hands of Kavalier; Lily Newmark‘s Nibs, who quickly loses any semblance of sanity due to the horrors she bares witness too; and of course Slightly, who quickly becomes victim to the predatory and deadly manipulations of Morrow in his quest to return the alien samples to Weyland-Yutani. Every actor in the group does a valiant job at balancing the childlike quality of these characters with whatever emotions their individual arcs require them to tap into, and it’s great to see a series like this highlight young talent.

The series is a story of deathy and mortality

I would argue the main theme of the series is death and mortality. Almost every character is motivated by it in some form, whether that be Wendy and Joe trying to prevent each other’s deaths, Kavalier’s fear at growing old, Kirsh’ fascination with death and how humans are born to die, or The Lost Boys’ trauma at their experiences with both their own deaths and the deaths they bare witness to.

Death is the ultimate example of the fear of the unknown, because it is truly unknowable and uncertain, and thus this series is taking the cosmic horror element at the centre of this franchise and exploring it through a brand new lens. It’s not necessarily a new or unique theme for either science fiction or horror, but I find the way this series is exploring it to be interesting. It’s tackling themes of consciousness and what it means to truly exist, exploring similar concepts to games like Soma, or anything else that questions artificial life and how to be ‘immortal’ through technology. The show handles this theme well, where it’s obvious and clear from the get-go, but never bogs down the action sequences or moments of horror and terror; thus, the show gets to both be entertaining and meaningful at the same time, a delicate balance it pulls off well.

I’d be remiss not to mention the Peter Pan allegory that is a huge element of the show. At first I figured it would be subtextual, but no, many characters are quite literally named after figures from the book and the series calls explicit attention to some of the parallels. Kavalier is Peter Pan and the hybrids are his lost boys. Morrow is the villainous Captain Hook, complete with fake hand, haunted by the crocodile, who is in this case the Xenomorph. Wendy deals with a ticking ringing in her ears and a connection to said Xenomorph, and I guess Timothy Olyphant is Tinkerbell. What a sentence.

I’m not sure quite what to think of the Peter Pan references yet – it directly ties into the series themes of death, mortality and legacy, but also adds an exploration of nostalgia, which can also be seen in Wendy’s attachment to old children’s movies, and how the series is visually reinterpreting the original Alien whilst exploring new ground at once. I think the allegory could have been handled a bit more subtly, and I dislike whenever the show explicitly calls to it, but I do like that it’s there. It’s an interesting layer to add to it, and helps the viewer set up expectations for what be coming up. I suppose it might have flown over some people’s heads, but when the rest of the show is intelligently and compellingly written, the explicit connections feel a bit frustrating.

Overall, Alien: Earth blends the old and the new, taking both elements of prior entries and unseen concepts, smashing them together into an eclectic and fascinating mix that is intriguing to watch and easy to invest into. Whilst not all of it works, and some of the weak points really hold it back from reaching the masterful standards of quality that other entries hit, it’s an exciting and interesting show with excellent production values that I would highly recommend. It’s stuffed full of brilliant performances from both experienced and newer actors, and explores its themes from an interesting and in-depth vantage point, giving itself time to breath and really explore itself in depth.

It’s not confirmed yet whether this will be a miniseries or the start of a much larger story, but I’m grateful to have gotten another fantastic entry to my favorite horror franchise, giving me much to think alongside the bloody thrills I crave from the series. Well, as much as I can think about before T Ocellus occupies my brain, anyway.

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