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  2. TDP 1390: Alien Earth from #Disney #FX REVIEW

TDP 1390: Alien Earth from #Disney #FX REVIEW

Oct 10, 2025

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Alien: Earth is an American science fiction horror television series created by Noah Hawley. It is the first television series in the Alien franchise and is set two years before the events of the 1979 film Alien. The series stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav, and Timothy Olyphant in main roles.

Development for the series was reported to have begun in early 2019, with Ridley Scott attached to executive produce for FX on Hulu. It had started pre-production by April 2023, with Chandler cast in the lead role the following month, and further casting taking place from July to November that year. After principal photography was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production began in July 2023 but was halted in August due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming resumed in April 2024 and ended in July that year.

Alien: Earth premiered on FX and FX on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ internationally on August 12, 2025.

Premise

The opening of the first episode introduces the premise of the series as involving three separate destinies for the immortality of mankind. These are:[2]

  • Cybernetically enhanced humans: Cyborgs
  • Artificially intelligent beings: Synthetics (Synths)
  • Synthetic beings with downloaded human consciousness: Hybrids

When the space vessel Maginot crash-lands on Earth, a young hybrid woman and a group of tactical soldiers make a discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's biggest threat.[3]

Cast and characters

Main

Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, and Timothy Olyphant play Wendy, Joe Hermit, Boy Kavalier, and Kirsh respectively.
  • Sydney Chandler as Wendy,[4] the first hybrid (a person who has their human consciousness transferred into a synthetic body) and leader of the "Lost Boys" (a group of six hybrid prototypes created from terminally ill children by the Prodigy Corporation). Formerly known as Marcy Hermit, she was renamed Wendy after becoming a hybrid.[5]
  • Alex Lawther as Joe Hermit,[4][6] a medic for the Prodigy Corporation Security Service, and Wendy's human brother[5][7]
  • Essie Davis as Dame Sylvia,[4] an employee of the Prodigy Corporation and Arthur Sylvia's wife[8]
  • Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier,[4] the CEO of the Prodigy Corporation and the world's youngest trillionaire[5]
  • Babou Ceesay as Morrow,[4] the USCSS Maginot's cyborg (human with some synthetic parts) chief security officer[9]
  • Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, a hybrid and member of the "Lost Boys". Formerly known as Aarush Singh, he was renamed Slightly by the Prodigy Corporation.[8]
  • Erana James as Curly,[4] a hybrid and member of the "Lost Boys"[9][7]
  • Lily Newmark as Nibs,[4] a hybrid and member of the "Lost Boys".[9][7] Formerly known as Rose Ellis.
  • Jonathan Ajayi as Smee,[4] a hybrid and member of the "Lost Boys"[9][7]
  • David Rysdahl as Arthur Sylvia, a scientist and Dame Sylvia's husband[5][7]
  • Diêm Camille as Siberian,[4] a Prodigy Corporation Security Service soldier[9]
  • Moe Bar-El as Rashidi,[4] a Prodigy Corporation Security Service soldier[10]
  • Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins,[4] a senior synthetic employee of the Prodigy Corporation[9][7]
  • Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh,[4] Prodigy Corporation's synthetic chief scientist, who serves as a mentor to the Lost Boys.[5]

Recurring

Guest

  • Richa Moorjani as Zoya Zaveri, the executive officer and later acting captain aboard the USCSS Maginot [14][15]
  • Lloyd Everitt as Hoyt, a Prodigy Corporation Security Service soldier on the search and rescue team with Joe[16]
  • Tayme Thapthimthong as Anant, a Prodigy Corporation Security Service soldier on the search and rescue team with Joe[16]
  • Dean Alexandrou as Bergerfeld, a Prodigy Corporation Security Service soldier on the search and rescue team with Joe[17][18]
  • Amir Boutrous as Rahim, a medical officer aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Karen Aldridge as Chibuzo, a science officer aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Michael Smiley as Shmuel, an engineer aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Jamie Bisping as Malachite, an engineer's apprentice aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Andy Yu as Teng, the navigator aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Max Rinehart as Bronski, a science officer aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Enzo Cilenti as Petrovich, the chief engineer aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Tom Moya as Clem, a junior security officer aboard the USCSS Maginot [19]
  • Victoria Masoma as Sullivan, a crew member aboard the USCSS Maginot [14]
  • Tanapol Chuksrida as Dinsdale, the captain of the USCSS Maginot [14]

Episodes

No. Title Directed by Written by Original release date U.S. viewers
(millions)
1 "Neverland" Noah Hawley Noah Hawley August 12, 2025 0.589[20]
In 2120, five companies control Earth and the colonized Solar System, including the recently founded Prodigy Corporation. The USCSS Maginot , a Weyland-Yutani deep space research vessel, approaches Earth after a 65-year expedition to obtain extra-terrestrial specimens, among them facehuggers. On Earth, at Prodigy's Neverland research island, a terminally ill child named Marcy becomes the first hybrid, having her consciousness transferred to an adult synthetic, and renames herself Wendy. Adjusting to her new body with the assistance of synthetic mentor Kirsh, Wendy oversees several other children who undergo the procedure. A malfunction compromises the Maginot's navigation, placing it on a collision course with Earth. Some specimens escape, and a grown Xenomorph kills most of the crew. It crashes into a tower in the Prodigy city of New Siam, where Wendy's human brother Joe Hermit works as a medic and corporate soldier. CEO Boy Kavalier asserts the Maginot's contents now belong to Prodigy, and deploys Kirsh and the hybrids on Wendy's request to assist with search and rescue to test the hybrids capabilities. Security officer Morrow, who survived the crash in a reinforced panic room, moves to protect the cargo and detains two Prodigy soldiers, who are killed by a leech-like specimen. Wendy remarks to Kirsh that she wants to save her brother from death.
2 "Mr. October" Dana Gonzales Noah Hawley August 12, 2025 0.380[20]
Boy Kavalier tells Dame Sylvia, that he formed the Hybrid project to allow humanity to compete with artificial intelligence, and has granted Wendy additional abilities as he wishes to create a person smarter than him. Kavalier declines Weyland-Yutani's request to secure the Maginot's proprietary contents, warning any incursion on Prodigy's territory will be considered a hostile act. Joe is chased by a Xenomorph and separated from his colleagues. The Xenomorph tracks Joe to the higher floors of the tower, killing another soldier and massacring an apartment of wealthy residents who did not evacuate. Joe is saved by Morrow, who tasers Joe and the Xenomorph, but the Xenomorph regains consciousness and escapes after killing numerous other soldiers, sparing Morrow. Arriving in New Siam, Hybrids Tootles, Smee, Nibs, and Curly encounter other extraterrestrial specimens. Wendy locates Joe along with Slightly but Joe does not recognize Wendy. Slightly reveals Wendy's true identity to a shocked Joe who believed Wendy/Marcy had died. The three encounter several Xenomorph eggs and are ordered by Kirsh to contain them until a HazMat team arrives. Joe is dragged away by the Xenomorph, and Wendy chases after it.
3 "Metamorphosis" Dana Gonzales Noah Hawley and Bob DeLaurentis August 19, 2025 0.441[21]
Nibs questions Curly about why the hybrids are all named after Peter Pan characters and why Marcy gets to be Wendy. Kavalier orders the specimens be brought to Neverland Island for study, despite objections from Kirsh and Dame Sylvia. Morrow finds Smee and Slightly guarding the Xenomorph eggs and interrogates them, suspicious of their childlike behavior. Morrow downloads all the data from the Maginot and erases the data from the source. Kirsh confronts Morrow and Morrow plants a device on Slightly's neck before escaping. Meanwhile, Wendy and Joe fight the Xenomorph with a meat hook, and Wendy kills the Xenomorph, although both sustain serious injuries. Returning to the island, Joe undergoes surgery and the Arthur and Dame tend to Wendy. Having escaped into New Siam, Morrow calls Ms. Yutani, and insists on retrieving the specimens despite being ordered to return home. Curly confronts Kavalier about his favoritism towards Wendy, asserting herself to be the best hybrid. Morrow contacts Slightly via the embedded device, convincing Slightly to be Morrow's friend. Kirsh, Tootles, and Curly dissect a facehugger and introduce its larva to Joe's damaged lung, removed during surgery. Wendy awakens, seemingly intercepting signals from the Xenomorph eggs which cause pain. Wendy ultimately collapses in the laboratory containing the eggs.
4 "Observation" Ugla Hauksdóttir Noah Hawley and Bobak Esfarjani August 26, 2025 0.393[22]
When Wendy wakes up, Arthur adjusts her hearing so Wendy can hear the Xenomorph eggs without experiencing pain, and Wendy discovers she can speak the Xenomorphs' language in a frequency audible to humans. Kirsh and Tootles test Trypanohyncha Ocellus (an octopus-like creature) on a sheep, and it implants itself in the sheep's brain via its eye socket. Tootles names himself as Issac. Kumi Morrow pressures Slightly into revealing his real name, Aarush Singh, and he is from India, as a sign of trust, and asks Slightly to steal a Xenomorph egg. Nibs, claiming to be pregnant, becomes violent after Dame Sylvia tries to interrogate her about the rescue mission, and is unknowingly put under house arrest. Joe, jaded after seeing how Wendy is treated as an experiment, attempts to quit and leave. However, Atom Eins tells Joe that if he does, Joe will be sent a large bill for his new lung and never see Wendy again. Slightly contacts Morrow to tell him that he cannot steal an egg, but the latter reveals he used Slightly's real name to track down his family, and uses them as blackmail. Morrow instructs Slightly to take a human near the eggs so they can be infected by a facehugger. It is revealed that Kirsh had been eavesdropping on Morrow and Slightly's conversations. Later, Wendy observes the Xenomorph-infected lung as the newborn Xenomorph bursts out, and Wendy placates it by communicating.
5 "In Space, No One..." Noah Hawley Noah Hawley September 2, 2025 0.361[23]
A flashback shows the events that occurred on the Maginot before it reached Earth. Junior security officer Clem wakes Morrow from cryo-sleep and tells him that a fire has led to two facehuggers escaping containment, which latched onto Captain Dinsdale and Science Officer Bronski. Dinsdale dies from the facehugger's acid blood when medical officer Rahim attempts to cut its tail. After being told by engineer Shmuel that the ship's navigational systems were also damaged in the fire, Morrow concludes that someone has sabotaged the ship. Executive officer Zaveri assumes command of the ship, but Morrow threatens to relieve her if she does not prioritize the creatures above the crew. Bronski is placed in cryo-sleep to prevent the gestation of the Xenomorph, but this fails. In science officer Chibuzo's lab, one leech specimen manages to open its test tube from the inside, and lays its larvae in her water bottle. Witnessing this, the Ocellus also escapes afterwards. Apprentice engineer Malachite drinks the water, and the larvae kill him internally; Chibuzo and Rahim are killed by their defensive toxic gas when trying to extract them. Navigator Teng is killed by the now full-grown Xenomorph. Chief engineer Petrovich is revealed to be behind the sabotage, having been promised a hybrid body by Kavalier if the ship crashes in Prodigy territory. Petrovich kills Clem and is in turn killed by Morrow, who retreats to the control room and seals himself in. Zaveri is killed by the Xenomorph outside the door. With everyone dead, Morrow locks himself in the panic room and awaits the crash. Back in the present, Morrow meets with Yutani, offering to retrieve the specimens by force and kill Kavalier.
6 "The Fly" Ugla Hauksdóttir Noah Hawley and Lisa Long September 9, 2025 0.478[24]
As the Xenomorph grows, Wendy works on communicating with it. Nibs undergoes testing, prompting Atom Eins to demand her memory be reset to before the Maginot's crash. Dame reluctantly accepts, but Arthur refuses, and is fired under threat of execution if he is not gone by the end of the day. Wendy, disturbed by Nibs' behavior afterwards, learns she was reprogrammed. Meanwhile, Kavalier meets with Yutani over the ship's return and outwits her, securing 20 billion in damages while keeping the specimens for 6 weeks due to quarantine. Kirsh asks Tootles to feed and water the specimens while he is away. However, the Ocellus surprises him into accidentally locking himself in the same cage as two fly-like creatures, who kill him with acid and feed on his body. Slightly tries to lure Joe to the alien eggs, but he declines due to reassignment. Joe later visits a packing Arthur, who covertly deactivates Wendy's tracking device and gives Joe a boat code to allow them to escape. Noticing Tootles is disconnected, he goes to the lab accompanied by Slightly, who opens the cage of the Xenomorph eggs and locks him in, allowing a facehugger to latch onto Arthur. Kirsh watches this through security cameras, but does not tell Kavalier. Slightly hides along with Arthur's body in an air vent as the flies leave their cell.
7 "Emergence" Dana Gonzales Noah Hawley and Maria Melnik September 16, 2025 0.385[25]
Smee discovers Slightly hiding an incapacitated Arthur, and the latter convinces him to help deliver Arthur to Morrow on the beach. Security re-secures the lab specimens. Wendy is disgusted by Kavalier's attitude to Tootles' death, and convinces Nibs to join her and Joe in escaping the island. On her way out, Wendy hacks the lab system, releasing the grown Xenomorph, which rampages and escapes into the forest. Kirsh finds Slightly and Smee carrying Arthur's body, but helps them take a faster route to the beach. Outside, Arthur awakes after the facehugger dies. Shortly after, a newborn Xenomorph bursts from his chest and escapes. The hybrids take the corpse to the beach, where Morrow's Yutani team meets them. Having failed to bring him the newborn, Morrow takes them captive. After Kirsh shows him the Ocellus caused the lab accident, Kavalier becomes fascinated with the creature's intelligence, and wants to place it into a human host. Outside, Wendy, Joe, and Nibs are held at gunpoint by Yutani forces, but Wendy calls the Xenomorph which kills them. She comforts it, sparing them. Morrow's team enter the facility, but they are taken captive by Kirsh, who has also captured the newborn Xenomorph. Wendy, Joe, and Nibs reach the boat, but they are intercepted by Neverland security. Nibs, frustrated, brutally kills a soldier, prompting Joe to incapacitate her. A shocked Wendy scolds Joe, as the Xenomorph watches in the distance.
8 "The Real Monsters" Dana Gonzales Noah Hawley & Migizi Pensoneau September 23, 2025 0.469[26]
The hybrids have been imprisoned in one cell, with Joe and Morrow in another. Wendy uses her abilities to block the facility's cameras and communications. She struggles with Joe's decision to shoot Nibs, believing he chose to ally himself with humans instead of her, but ultimately unlocks his cell. Kavalier approaches the hybrids and reveals that at six years old, he built his own synthetic which he used to kill his abusive father. Wendy unlocks their cell, Nibs kills Kavalier's bodyguard, and Kavalier flees. Morrow attacks Kirsh in the lab; Kirsh is badly damaged, but ultimately chokes Morrow unconscious. Smee and Slightly arrive in the lab and they take both Kirsh and Morrow, while Nibs captures Dame. Meanwhile, Atom lures Joe to Kavalier's room and locks him in with the Ocellus. Wendy arrives to save him and fights Atom, who reveals himself as a synthetic, allowing Wendy to control his motor functions. The Ocellus escapes to the beach, where it possesses Arthur's corpse. With the help of the older Xenomorph, Wendy and Joe capture Kavalier and lock him in a cell with Kirsh, Atom, Dame, and Morrow. As Yutani and her team approach the island, Wendy, with both Xenomorphs nearby, declares, "Now, we rule."

Production

Development

In February 2019, Bloody Disgusting reported that two Alien television series were in development, one animated – Alien: Isolation – and one live-action, from Ridley Scott for the network FX on Hulu.[27] In December 2020, as part of Disney's Investor Day presentation, the latter television series project was officially announced to be in development for the network, with Noah Hawley as showrunner and Scott as executive producer, being set on Earth in the near future.[28]

On February 17, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the series is a prequel taking place before the events of Alien (1979).[29] Hawley himself confirmed that the series would be tied more into the style and mythology of the original 1979 film rather than the prequel films Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017).[30] In April 2023, chairman of FX Productions, John Landgraf, stated that the series was in active pre-production.[31] According to FX Entertainment president Gina Balian, the scale of the production of Alien: Earth was much bigger than that of the 2024 FX series Shōgun, whose budget has been reported as $250 million.[32]

Casting

In May 2023, Sydney Chandler was cast in the lead role,[33] followed by Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, and Adarsh Gourav in July.[8] Timothy Olyphant and David Rysdahl would be among those added to the cast in November 2023.[34][5][9][35]

Filming

Principal photography was scheduled to begin in March 2022, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[36] Production on the series began on July 19, 2023, in Thailand.[8] Filming (without the American cast including Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, and David Rysdahl) was allowed to occur during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike due to the series' British cast working under an Equity contract.[36][8] In late August, the production was halted due to the strike with most of the first episode completed.[12] Filming resumed in April 2024,[11] and wrapped in mid-July.[37] Dana Gonzales, Bella Gonzales and Colin Watkinson serve as cinematographers.[38][39]

Music

The score for the series was composed by Jeff Russo. The soundtrack was released on Hollywood Records on August 12, 2025.[40] It will get a vinyl release in December 2025 on Mutant.[41]

The episodes end on famous rock, metal and alternative rock songs because Hawley decided to highlight the cliffhanger endings by "mak[ing] an arena show, something that feels bigger than a small theater", featuring tracks by TV on the Radio, Black Sabbath, Tool, Metallica, Jane's Addiction, The Smashing Pumpkins, alt-j, Godsmack, Queens of the Stone Age and Pearl Jam.[42][43] The soundtrack from the fifth episode "In Space, No One…" was released as a stand-alone album on September 2, 2025.[44]

Release

Promotion

Alien: Earth's promotion included immersive experiences such as The Wreckage, which was displayed at the San Diego Comic-Con and South by Southwest, and The Hunt, an activation staged in major cities worldwide.[45][46] FX also partnered with several companies for promotional tie-ins, offering limited-time meals and beverages through food and hotel chains, as well as exclusive merchandise.[47][45]

Release

The first episode of Alien: Earth was screened early at the series' panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 25.[48] The series premiered on FX and FX on Hulu with its first two episodes on August 12, followed by weekly releases of the remaining six episodes.[49] Internationally, Alien: Earth was made available to stream on Disney+.[50]

Reception

Viewership

The Walt Disney Company announced that the first episode of Alien: Earth garnered 9.2 million views worldwide within its first six days of streaming. This total was calculated by dividing the total hours watched by the episode's runtime, reflecting viewership on FX, Hulu, and Disney+.[51][52] Analytics company Samba TV, which gathers viewership data from certain smart TVs and content providers, reported that Alien: Earth was watched by 1.8 million U.S. households during its live-plus-five-day period. Boomer households (ages 65–74) over-indexed in viewership by 8% compared to other demographic groups.[53] Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on some U.S. television screens, reported that Alien: Earth was watched for 464 million minutes between August 11–17, ranking as the seventh-most-streamed original series.[54][55] In the following week, from August 18–24, it recorded 337 million minutes of watch time, making it the ninth-most-streamed original series that week.[56][57] Alien: Earth was later streamed for 326 million minutes from August 25–31, making it the tenth-most-streamed original series of the week.[58][59]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 189 critics' reviews are positive, with a critics consensus of: "Stylistically bold and scary as hell, Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth transplants the Xenomorph mythos into the television medium with its cinematic grandeur intact while staking out a unique identity of its own."[60] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 85 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[61]

James Dyer of Empire gave the first season five out of five stars, praising its exploration of "the nature of consciousness, mortality, [and] humanity", concluding that "Hawley's series is a rare prequel that serves to enrich its source material, breathing new life into a once-tired franchise".[62] For RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico wrote, "Tony Gilroy's work on Andor feels like a logical comparison, and that's the quality tier on which this show resides as well. ... [Hawley] delivers an 8-episode first season that somehow marries the philosophical depth that fans of Prometheus admired with the intense action and bone-chilling imagery of James Cameron's Aliens."[63] Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter described it as a "heady, sprawling, occasionally unwieldy but eventually thrilling epic about personhood, hubris, and of course, the primal pleasure of watching people get absolutely rocked by space monsters", noting its production design and "new beasts with their own deliciously horrible ways of killing".[64]

Not all reviews were positive. Dominic Baez of The Seattle Times criticized the show's pace and uneven story, writing, "Its examination of identity ... is less insightful than it wants to be, buckling under the weight of its own unanswered questions. And far too often it feels like two separate plots stitched together, a Frankenstein's monster of existentialism and aliens ripping people apart."[65] Nicholas Quah of Vulture called the feeling of the show "tedious" and wrote that it "struggles to resolve the tension between replicating the core Alien appeal and building a broader narrative suited for long-form television," at the same time questioning if Hawley is fit for the genre versus his previous neo-noir stylings.[66]

Sigourney Weaver, who portrayed Ellen Ripley in the original movies, praised the series, noting how it expands the franchise's scope and calling it "much more profound than just an Alien movie."[67]

Future

According to series creator Noah Hawley, work has not yet begun on a second season, but conversations are ongoing. He is ready to begin immediately if Disney decides to renew the show. Hawley expects a renewal decision to be made "soon" after the airing of the season finale on September 23, 2025, once its viewership can be evaluated.[68] In another interview, Hawley said that he hopes to have a decision "in the next couple of months."[6