The upcoming seriesAlien: Earthcould have some major ties to the rest of theAlienfranchise, and it may even solve one mystery about theNostromofrom the original film. While it’s often considered one of thebest movies ever made, the originalAliendidn’t explain everything. There have been several newer installments that tried to fill in the gaps, butAlien: Earthcan still get to one lingering mystery.
Alien: Earth, which is set to premiere on August 12, is set very early intheAlientimeline. It’s essentially a prequel, but unlikePrometheusandAlien: Covenantbefore it,Earthhas some direct ties to the originalAlien. One of those ties may even solve one of the core mysteriesAlienfans have been speculating about for over 40 years.
Alien: Earthis a prequel series, but its terrestrial setting distances itself from the rest of theAlienfranchise quite a bit. That doesn’t, however, mean thatEarthwon’t have any connections to previousAlieninstallments. When asked ifAlien: Earthcould continue past its first season,showrunner Noah Hawley said that his prequel series may even connect to the events of the originalAlien(viaVanity Fair).
“I don’t yet know, in terms of the series from beginning to end, how much time is going to pass or where we’re going to end up. But I do know that at a certain point, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is going to divert the Nostromo to that planet.”
We already know thatAlien: Earthtakes place two years beforeAlien, in the year 2120. The first season will presumably only cover a few days or weeks, but as Hawley already teased,future seasons ofAlien: Earthcould easily depict the lead up to the events of the originalAlien. If it does,Earthcould even solve one of the franchise’s biggest mysteries from the original film.
Future Alien: Earth Seasons Can Explain Why The Nostromo Was Sent To LV-426
We Still Don’t Know If The Nostromo Was Sent To LV-426 Or Stumbled On It, But Alien: Earth Can Answer That Question
In the originalAlien, the crew of theNostromowas diverted to LV-426 after their scans detected a distress beacon, indicating life. Weyland-Yutani protocol demanded the crew investigate any signs of life, and the events ofAlienwere the consequences. However,we don’t yet know if Weyland-Yutani knew about the Xenomorphs and sent theNostromointo nearly certain death.
IfAlien: Earthgets multiple seasons, we could finally find out if Weyland-Yutani purposefully diverted theNostromoand put Ripley and the rest of her crew into its flight path. Hawley directly addressed this possibility, saying both that theNostromowas diverted and that “We have the opportunity to maybe see what was happening on the other side of that phone call.”
Release Date (Tuesdays @ 8 p.m. ET)
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September 23
After nearly half a century, we can finally know the full truth of the originalAlien. Weyland-Yutani has always been villainous, butAlien: Earthhas a chance to completely recontextualizeAlien. Instead of a corporation seizing blind luck to profit off the xenomorphs, Weyland-Yutani could become a corporation that willingly sent its own employees to their deaths inAlien: Earth.
