FX’s Alien: Earth lands August 12 and looks to bring the legendary sci-fi franchise back to horror. Created by Fargo‘s Noah Hawley and set over 50 years before Ridley Scott’s original Alien, the series promises practical effects, corporate paranoia, and a return to the grounded fear that defined the original.
Ahead of its premiere, FX brought Alien: Earth to San Diego Comic-Con with a massive presence, including a life-size crash site, immersive walkthrough, and a surprise premiere of the first episode.
Here’s everything you need to know.
How To Watch: The Series Premieres August 12 on FX and Hulu
Alien: Earth debuts with two episodes on August 12, exclusively on FX and Hulu in the U.S., and Disney+ internationally. The show will run for eight episodes total, with new episodes weekly.
The series is set in the year 2120, roughly two decades before the events of Prometheus and just two years before Alien (1979).
Comic-Con Featured a Full Crash Site Experience
At San Diego Comic-Con 2025, FX transformed a section of the marina lawn outside the Hilton into an immersive Alien activation called “The Wreckage.”
The walkthrough featured:
- A crashed spaceship styled after the USCSS Maginot (the ship from the show)
- Military containers, alien egg props, and Weyland-Yutani branding
- Live actors playing shaken-up survivors and corporation staff
At night, the area reportedly turned into a “Code Red” scare zone, complete with lighting effects and actors in alien prosthetics.
Also grabbing attention was the massive mural on the side of the Hilton Bayfront hotel, featuring a xenomorph skull with Earth inside its open jaw and the “8.12 FX Hulu” release stamp.
The Story: Horror, Hybrids, and Corporate Greed
Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth centers on a crashed mining vessel and a mysterious synthetic/human hybrid named Wendy. The show will explore:
- Themes of exploitation, synthetic identity, and tech addiction
- Corporate corruption by the Weyland-Yutani-like company Prodigy Corporation
- A younger Earth not yet aware of the xenomorph threat
According to Hawley, the goal is to ground the show in body horror, ethical dilemmas, and survival themes, not alien battles.
Cast and Creators
- Sydney Chandler plays the lead (Wendy), a synthetic hybrid on the run
- Timothy Olyphant plays a synthetic-hunting military officer
- Created by Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion), with Ridley Scott involved as an executive producer
- David W. Zucker, Joseph Iberti, Dana Gonzales and Clayton Krueger also executive produce
Ridley Scott reportedly gave Hawley’s set design a single note after reviewing the early ship mockups:
“Wow. F—k me,” reacted Scott, which the team took as a full greenlight.
The cast also includes Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Essie Davis, Lily Newmark, Erana James, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Kit Young, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El, and Sandra Yi Sencindiver.
Could Alien: Earth Lead to More?
Alien: Earth is being described as an ongoing series, not a one-and-done miniseries. If it lands with fans, expect further seasons or at least deeper ties to the Alien: Romulus timeline and eventual franchise reboot. Maybe even Aliens vs Predator.
Alien Might Finally Be Back
After years of misfires, FX and Noah Hawley might have cracked the Alien formula: build the dread, keep it practical, and focus on characters trapped in a system too big to escape.
Whether you’re a fan of Alien (1979), Aliens, or even Prometheus, Alien: Earth looks like it might finally bring the fear back to the franchise.
Official synopsis:
Here is the official description of the series:
Fear takes new forms.
When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s Alien: Earth.
In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named “Wendy” marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, “Wendy” and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.
Watch the new featurette:
