This is a spoiler-free review of the first six episodes of FX’s ‘Alien: Earth.’ 

The Alien franchise has been a cinematic staple since Ridley Scott’s original Sci-fi/Horror classic was released in 1979, spawning three direct sequels, two prequels, and a legacy sequel with last year’s Alien: Romulus (2024). It was only a matter of time before the new IP holder, Disney, decided to expand the franchise’s footprint to its television divisions, which include ABC, FX, Disney+, and Hulu. 

Enter FX’s Alien: Earth (2025), created by Noah Hawley, the visionary behind another FX hit, Fargo (2014-2024), who jumps into the Alien franchise with complete confidence. He unsurprisingly knocks it out of the park. Hawley impressively takes every fascinating concept introduced throughout the many films and blends them into one haunting series tailor-made for Alien fans, while also providing multiple new Sci-fi ideas for us to sink our teeth into. 

Most of the plot has been kept under wraps to avoid spoiling the many surprises Hawley has in store, but the setup for Alien: Earth follows a young girl who becomes the first human to have her consciousness uploaded into a synthetic body, saving her from death and granting her a superhuman upgrade. Once her transfer proves successful, the new corporation behind the procedure, Prodigy, repeats it on more children, creating a small task force of synthetics with child-like consciousnesses that will never get older called The Lost Boys. 

From the outset, Alien: Earth employs Peter Pan (1953) as an allegory for these new child-synthetic hybrids, with Sydney Chandler’s character, the first of the group, being renamed Wendy, leader of the Lost Boys. At times, the metaphor can feel heavy-handed, especially since Alien: Earth only has access to Peter Pan because Disney owns FX. However, as the series continues and its layers peel back, any references to Peter Pan feel entirely earned. 

With all of this talk about synthetics, you may be wondering where the alien creatures come into play. The series primarily takes place on Earth two years before the events of the original Alien and before the Nostromo first encountered Xenomorphs. It turns out that the Nostromo wasn’t the only Wayland-Yutani spaceship looking to capture and study extraterrestrial life forms. The USS Maginot is the Wayland-Yutani ship that Alien: Earth focuses on, as the Maginot wasn’t just looking to capture and bring back Xenomorphs, but multiple deadly alien lifeforms, and they found them. 

Episode 1 kicks off with a movie-level event, which is further explored in Episode 5–one of the year’s best episodes of television–as the Xenomorphs are already loose on the Maginot, causing the ship to crashland in Prodigy City on Earth, much to the dismay of Wayland-Yutani. Some Alien purists may wince hearing that Hawley has decided to introduce new alien creatures in Alien: Earth, pulling focus away from the Xenomorphs. Luckily, anyone with those fears should put them aside immediately because Hawley and the VFX team bring these new aliens to life in such horrifying ways that it only enhances the show’s suspense. This is due to many factors, but the primary one is that the audience doesn’t know the disgusting ways in which these deadly creatures can dispose of the show’s characters, keeping things fresh yet familiar. 

When it comes to the characters themselves, Alien: Earth may be one of the only Alien projects where you legitimately care about more than just the lead. More than that, their stories and the way they unfold are just as captivating as watching the aliens cause carnage. Hawley and his talented team of writers craft some truly unique character developments, which are expertly brought to life by a group of standout actors, including Chandler, Adarsh Gourav, Babou Ceesay, and Jonathan Ajayi.  

Hawley’s worldbuilding is also extremely impressive, elevating Alien: Earth from a typical franchise extension to a distinctly original piece of work. From the creation of human-synthetic hybrids, cyborgs, and the establishment of new corporations to compete with Wayland-Yuntani, Hawley took his time crafting a thrilling expansion of a beloved property that elevates the original work in every way. 

That being said, even with all of the larger-than-life ideas and worldbuilding Hawley brings to the table in Alien: Earth, he still manages to maintain the contained environments from Scott’s original film. There are multiple tension-filled sequences set in the tight quarters of various ships and research facilities that are visually striking and perfectly emulate the claustrophobia felt throughout Alien.

Along with expanding the world of the Alien franchise, Hawley also enriches the many intriguing themes presented throughout the films, distilling them into something that highlights how some humans in this world can be far more monstrous than any alien creature or synthetic. This is especially true with how Hawley depicts the complete disregard these massive corporations have for the working class. 

It’s an understatement to say that a lot is going on in Alien: Earth, but it all works. Alien: Earth is easily the best entry in the Alien franchise since the original film. It may be overzealous to declare, especially since I’ve only seen six out of the eight episodes, but it’s hard to believe in a world where Hawley isn’t able to wrap up the season in a wholly satisfying way. I just can’t wait to see how he does it.  

FX’s Alien: Earth premieres on August 12th at 8:00 PM EST on FX, and Hulu in the U.S and Disney+ in Canada with two episodes, followed by new episodes weekly.

Review Courtesy of Ethan Dayton

Feature Image Credit to Disney/FX