At long last, FX has released an official trailer for Alien: Earth. The highly anticipated series from Noah Hawley is a prequel set two years before the seminal events in 1979’s Alien. The new footage revealed several important details about the characters and storyline.
Human consciousness can exist in a synthetic body
The Alien franchise has always included androids, most notably Ian Holm as Ash in Alien and Michael Fassbender as David in Prometheus. The Alien: Earth trailer introduces the concept of hybrids, which are humanoid robots with human consciousness. The first hybrid prototype is Wendy, played by Sydney Chandler.
The consciousness of a young girl is transferred into a synthetic body. This technological breakthrough was facilitated by Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), the CEO of Prodigy Corporation.
Five corporations govern Earth
Every Alien fan will recognize Weyland-Yutani, the corporation behind most of the technological innovations of the time. The tech giant consistently puts humans at risk with xenomorphs due to corporate greed and the desire to churn a profit.
In the year 2120, Weyland-Yutani is one of five corporations that govern Earth. The other four are Prodigy, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. Humans coexist with cyborgs — humans with both biological and artificial parts — and synthetics — humanoid robots with artificial intelligence. Thanks to Wendy, add hybrids to the list of creatures on Earth.
There will be more than one creature wreaking havoc
The iconic creature of the Alien franchise is the xenomorph, the ruthless extraterrestrial species responsible for killing most of the humans in each movie. One xenomorph is more than enough to cause significant destruction. However, the Weyland-Yutani spaceship that crashed in Prodigy City was carrying more than one “invasive species.”
“This ship collected five different life forms from the darkest corners of the universe,” one of the characters states in the trailer. “Monsters … predatory.”
Wendy and a group of soldiers are tasked with investigating the ship. What they find “puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.”
The rest of Alien: Earth’s ensemble includes Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Adarsh Gourav, Kit Young, David Rysdahl, Babou Ceesa, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana Jame, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille, Adrian Edmondson, Moe Bar-El, and Sandra Yi Sencindiver.
Alien: Earth is created by Emmy winner Noah Hawley. Alien director Ridley Scott is attached as an executive producer.
Alien: Earth premieres on FX on August 12. Stream on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
