ALIEN: EARTH. Why do the xenomorphs need Earth, and why do viewers need this series?

After “Alien: Romulus”, it’s clear where the franchise is heading. In fact, it’s apparent that the series has now fully transformed into a franchise driven by fan service, focused solely on making money. The legend has been lost, and the series will bury it under a thick layer of mud. “Romulus” has already dug the grave. The premiere of “Alien: Earth” by Noah Hawley is scheduled for the first half of 2025. The story takes place on Earth, before the events of Ridley Scott’s first “Alien” movie, and centers around the fight with aliens — yes, those aliens, the xenomorphs. This concept turns the entire existing series on its head, especially the desperate struggles from the first three productions by Scott, Cameron, and Fincher, when Ripley was determined not to let the Weyland Corporation obtain a xenomorph egg, even sacrificing her life to prevent it. So, what was the point of all that, if xenomorphs had attacked Earth much earlier? And what about David and his plans to colonize Origae-6? Now, none of it seems to make sense.

Let me remind you of one important detail. There were about 57 years between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens”. Ripley drifted in space for that long after escaping the xenomorph from LV-426, until she was recovered by a “company” rescue team and brought to the Gateway station orbiting Earth. No one on the Nostromo inquiry board officially believed Ripley’s testimony, except maybe Burke, because the company had already wanted to capture a xenomorph. But why, if they supposedly already had them on Earth? Now recall the information about “Alien: Earth”. The protagonist of this multi-season series will be someone named Wendy. Her role is to discover a mysterious ship that crashes on Earth, and inside it are… well, eggs, hibernating aliens in the form of colonists, maybe from Origae-6, already infected with xenomorphs — or maybe the xenomorphs themselves? If that’s the case, why did Ripley know nothing about it? Why did Weyland-Yutani organize a rescue-research expedition to LV-426, if they’d supposedly had plenty of aliens on Earth for years? I’m not against franchise inventions, but they should at least respect the storyline to some degree, especially when new productions are being inserted between existing films. Ridley Scott had already proposed a very coherent origin for the xenomorphs, but left the door open to continue the story after “Alien: Covenant”. Yet, no one has taken the opportunity to explore what could be the most interesting addition to the franchise — even in the form of a series — telling the story of the colonists from the “Covenant” ship that David took on a long journey to Origae-6, along with xenomorph embryos.

Instead, viewers will likely get something simpler narratively, something that repeats familiar patterns from the series. Another crashed spaceship, only the scenery changes. The actors are mostly unknown and therefore cheap, with the visual effects loaded with CGI, but where is the style, the unique atmosphere, where is any logic or realism, which even fiction needs to avoid feeling forced? If “Alien: Earth” is just another tribute to Scott and Cameron’s feature films, it will be another missed opportunity, much like “Romulus”, which unimaginatively rehashes what we’ve already seen in the series. So why do it? For money, because “Alien” is not yet an exhausted franchise. As a fan of the series, it saddens me that I had to watch something of “Romulus’s” quality, and I will probably watch the series for professional reasons. But there’s at least one bright spot in this mess, and that’s Timothy Olyphant playing a synthetic. Will he reach the level of Lance Henriksen or Michael Fassbender? We’ll see. If he’s surrounded by a derivative plot, there’s not much the actor can do.

This whole mess becomes even more perplexing with the recent online rumor that there won’t be any xenomorphs in “Alien: Earth”. Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation. If they’re included, I’ve already outlined why the idea is hopeless. If they’re not, I can’t justify the rationale for making the series, not even for the potential profits from cashing in on the franchise’s legacy. There’s also something that no one seems to have pointed out yet. The “Alien” series became famous not only because of its scripts but also for the suspense, carefully constructed within the almost laboratory-like structure of feature-length films. Even “Alien: Resurrection” had its own distinctive atmosphere, characteristic of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s work. “Romulus” was the first to break with this unique format, mixing all the styles and threads to create something like a derivative tribute to the previous parts of the cycle. It won’t be any different in the series, as it’s planned for several seasons, and you can’t maintain the distinct styles of Scott, Cameron, Fincher, or Jeunet over such an extended period. You can’t even sustain “Romulus’s” style, because can you imagine several seasons set in claustrophobic, confined spaces? That would be boring. A series must introduce new elements that break the atmosphere, thus destroying one of the most important attributes of the series. After all, “Alien” films were built around trapping viewers in a limited space where the slasher-like drama of the characters unfolded. “Prometheus” and “Covenant” were the first to somewhat break from this format, but even their worlds were still confined. They didn’t include Earth, and that’s crucial for the audience’s perception. “Alien: Earth” will be characterized by Noah Hawley’s style, the same Hawley who stretched the legendary Coen brothers’ “Fargo” into five seasons of absurdity and in “Legion”, covered a weak plot with an overly elaborate form. In this case, one crazy season would have been enough. Perhaps that’s all “Alien” needs too, to have a chance to be better than the formulaic “Romulus”.

Setting aside how “Alien: Earth’s” storyline tramples over the heartfelt and sacrificial battles Ripley fought in the first three films to keep xenomorphs from reaching Earth, the only rational explanation for aliens being on our planet is David. The problem is, I doubt this thread will be explored in the series. At best, the audience will be given another explanation for why Earth is so attractive to facehuggers. Deep down, though, I’ll still be waiting for David’s grim face, hoping to find out what happened to the colonists from the USCSS “Covenant”.