Alien’s Prequel Series Gets 10/10 For Quality And 1/10 For Franchise Continuity

Although the Alien franchise’s first streaming series broke with a lot of the existing canon established by the movies, this didn’t stop the show from becoming one of the most intriguing entries into the franchise in years. It is undoubtedly a great time to be a fan of sci-fi TV. While shows like Prime Video’s one-season cyberpunk series The Peripheral prove that not every great series gets a chance to find its fan base, the genre is still thriving on the small screen.

Apple TV’s ambitious Isaac Asimov adaptation Foundation, its post-apocalyptic thriller Silo, and its upcoming William Gibson show Neuromancer all prove that the streaming service is serious about futuristic sci-fi, while the acclaimed Monsterverse spinoff Monarch: Legacy of Monsters gives Apple TV another sci-fi hit to add to its roster. Netflix’s eight-season anthology masterpiece Black Mirror proves that, despite canceling earlier cult hits like Sense8 and Altered Carbon far too soon, the streamer is now equally committed to high-quality, thoughtful small-screen sci-fi storytelling.

However, it is Disney’s reinvention of the Alien franchise, Alien: Earth, that stands out as one of the most acclaimed hits in the genre in recent years. Beginning 16 years after the events of 2012’s prequel movie Prometheus and its sequel Alien: Covenant but before the events of 1979’s original Alien, the plot of Alien: Earth focuses on the “Lost Boys,” a group of six humanoid hybrids, experimental synthetic bodies with the consciousnesses of real people transferred into them.

Alien: Earth Broke A Cardinal Rule Of Prequel Spinoffs By Breaking Canon

Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley’s Alien show sees these prototypes, along with a handful of cyborgs and human characters, stumble upon a Xenomorph on Earth after the USCSS Maginot brings samples of numerous extraterrestrials back to Earth for experimentation. Eagle-eyed fans of the franchise might think that this is nothing new, since 2004’s Alien Vs Predator revealed that Xenomorphs had been to Earth thousands of years before, and its sequel, 2007’s Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem, even let them loose in a small US town.

However, it is important to note that, with its new Weyland Yutani CEO and backstory, original Alien director Ridley Scott’s prequel Prometheus had retconned the events of the Alien Vs Predator movies by the time Disney’s series Alien: Earth began. Thanks to director Fede Alvarez’s 2024 reboot Alien: Romulus, which took place between Alien and Aliens in the franchise timeline, the story of the first four movies in the franchise and Scott’s two prequels finally formed a cohesive whole.

After Alvarez’s movie reshuffled various plot elements to ensure that the story of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant lined up with the events of Alien and Aliens, Hawley’s show then threw away all of this hard work. In season 1 alone, Alien: Earth revealed that Weyland-Yutani knew about the Xenomorphs before Ripley’s misadventure, that David had nothing to do with the Xenomorph’s original creation, and that there are other extraterrestrial species in the world of the series.

Alien: Earth Is Proof That Quality Trumps Franchise Continuity

Image courtesy of Everett Collection

Readers might reasonably wonder why the Alien Vs Predator movies were roundly hated and eventually entirely retconned thanks to their changes to the franchise canon, while Alien: Earth was one of the most celebrated sci-fi shows of the last decade. The answer is that Alien: Earth’s divergences from the existing franchise canon didn’t really matter since the show was so compelling.

Before the show even began, Hawley had confirmed that his series would be more focused on telling an interesting self-contained story in the world of the franchise, rather than ironing out the kinks of its byzantine mythology. By focusing on entertaining viewers instead of prioritizing clearing up canon confusion, Alien: Earth became one of the best Alien franchise outings in years.

Release Date

August 12, 2025

Directors

Dana Gonzales, Ugla Hauksdóttir, Noah Hawley

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