“Alien: Earth” partial poster.
FX/HULU
The Alien prequel series Alien: Earth wrapped up with Episode 8 on Tuesday with an ending that begs the question of whether the story will continue with a second season.
Created by Fargo TV series architect Noah Hawley, Alien Earth began with a two-episode premiere on Aug. 12, and the series wrapped up the last of season’s eight episodes on Sept. 23. As of Wednesday, FX/Hulu has not yet given the greenlight to Alien: Earth Season 2, but all indications are that it’s in the works.
The first glimmer of hope that there would be an Alien: Earth Season 2 came a year before the release of the first season of the series, when during a July 17, 2024, interview with Variety, FX chairman John Landgraf discussed his prospects for the series.
Alluding to Hawley and his other hit series for FX, Landgraf told Variety, “We’re pretty bullish on Alien: Earth. And we’ve told him that assuming, as we hope, Alien: Earth is a returning television series, we want him to focus on at least writing two seasons of it before returning to a possible sixth season of Fargo.”
Set before the events of the original Alien movie from 1979, the official summary for the sci-fi horror series reads, “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.”
Alien: Earth got off to a strong start out of the gate, Deadline noted, adding that in the first six days of the series’ debut, Alien: Earth amassed 9.2 million cross-platform views globally across FX, Hulu and Disney+.
Noah Hawley Says ‘Alien: Earth’ Is ‘Not A Closed-Ended Season’
Without spoiling details of what occurs in Alien: Earth Episode 8, it’s pretty safe to say that Hawley kept his options open for the story to continue for Wendy (Sydney Chandler), Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther), Boy Kavelier (Samuel Blenkin), Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and of course, the Xenomorphs.
“Obviously, I had to plan and execute a story that that’s going someplace. And then, this whole thing is a proof-of-concept experiment to see if enough people on the planet want to watch an Alien TV show to justify the expense of a second and third season of an Alien TV show,” Hawley told The Hollywood Reporter after the episode was released.
“So, for me, I never hedged my bets. This is not a closed-ended season. This chapter is closed, but Yutani troops are landing,” Hawley added. “The balance of power has shifted. These children have no idea what’s coming. The last line of, ‘Now we rule’ is triumphant and uplifting. But cut to 10 minutes later … what is going to be happening? So, I like that it has that real-time urgency to it.”
In addition to getting audiences to tune in, Hawley is happy with the reception of the series from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics have given Alien: Earth a 94% “fresh” rating based on 177 reviews.
“What’s gratifying to me from the critical response is that this high-degree-difficulty dive seems to have landed,” Hawley told THR.
Hawley also discussed the future of Alien: Earth with Variety after the season finale was released on Tuesday and revealed that he hasn’t started writing the episodes for a potential Season 2 yet.
“It’s conversational at this point. You learn to be efficient and don’t work ahead of yourself. There’s conversations that are going on — obviously, the show’s about to wrap, and we’ll get a really complete sense of what the viewership was, and I would imagine that a decision would follow soon after as to whether to do a second season,” Hawley told Variety.
“Obviously, none of us — Disney or myself — want a single day longer than necessary to get a second season on the air, in success,” Hawley added. “Everyone wants to get this decision right. But we also want to be ready to go. I certainly know where I’m going. The moment they fire the starting gun, I’m out of the block.”
Also starring 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, all eight episodes of Alien: Earth are available on FX and streaming on Hulu.