‘Alien: Earth’ Promises More Xenomorph Action Than Any Movie Ever Director Confirms

A brand-new Alien series is coming soon, and fans can expect more Xenomorph action than ever before. Alien: Earth, created by Noah Hawley, is a prequel set two years before the first Alien movie from 1979.

It’s coming to FX and Hulu on August 12, 2025. The show stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, and Adarsh Gourav.

The story begins when a spaceship crashes on Earth. After that, a young woman and a group of soldiers discover a terrifying new threat, according to the official description. Hawley said that the series takes inspiration from the first two Alien movies.

He wanted to keep the classic look of the Xenomorphs, saying during a set visit interview, “In the design phase with Wētā, I didn’t want to mess with the silhouette of the creature at all.”

However, the creators did play around with some small changes. Hawley explained, “I always felt like it was the least effective when it looked like a guy in a suit. You know what I mean? So there are elements, like in the classic, there’s just this big ribcage, which feels very human to me, so I wanted to try to minimize that and play around with some other ideas.”

He also mentioned that the Xenomorphs in the movies are very black, but in the show, they’re adding more of a bug-like look. “I wanted to play into more of the bug-like quality of it, so maybe it falls a little more in the roach coloration,” he said.

Director and producer Dana Gonzales shared more details about how the Xenomorphs will be shown. He said the team focused on making the creatures easy to film and scary at the same time. “I think we designed something that is very photographable and scary and detailed,” Gonzales said.

He explained that in older movies, Xenomorphs usually just popped out for a scare, but in Alien: Earth, they’re flying through the air and chasing people. He said, “There’s a lot that supports the fact that you see it, and I don’t know if those other films had that.”

Gonzales also confirmed that the Xenomorphs and Facehuggers are real, practical effects, not computer-generated. “We don’t have any CG Xenomorph. It’s 100% real,” he said. He mentioned that Wētā built all the creatures, including many different Facehuggers that perform different actions in the show.

He added, “Even the eggs are quite sophisticated, and we can show them. I think that’s gonna be the strength of the show, especially to have eight hours of that compared to an hour and a half movie.”

So, how much Xenomorph action will fans actually see? According to both Hawley and Gonzales, a lot. Hawley said the show gives the monsters plenty of screen time. “It leaves a lot of time, honestly,” he promised. He admitted that some of the biggest scenes in the show took up a lot of time to film, but the team wanted to make sure the Xenomorph moments looked right.

Gonzales teased that viewers will get a massive event right in Episode 1, but the action really ramps up in Episodes 2 and 3. He said there was a rewrite during production to make both those episodes bigger. “Two used to be super massive. Now 2 and 3 are both massive,” he explained. Gonzales said fans can expect “a lot of Xenomorph activity going on wall-to-wall.” He called the first three episodes “unbelievable.”

While he didn’t share exactly how many Xenomorphs appear, Gonzales promised that it’s the most ever seen in the franchise. “All the movies, if you really study them, are like, 20 frame, two seconds, they show the Xenomorph. We have huge sequences where all you’re seeing is the Xenomorph. It’s driving a lot of things,” he said. Gonzales said their stunt team worked hard to bring the monsters to life, and viewers will see the difference.

Hawley also talked about his goal to make the Alien creatures scary again. He wants fans to feel the same fear they did when they watched the old movies for the first time. He said, “I am trying to re-mystify Alien. So much of what made that first movie and the second movie so horrifying was that every time you thought you knew what the lifecycle of this creature was, it just got worse.” Hawley said he worked on ways to surprise viewers again, saying, “I’ve tried to come up with ways that the show returns that sense of, ‘What’s going to happen next? That’s so gross!’”

With new creature designs, real-life practical effects, and a promise of more Xenomorph action than ever before, Alien: Earth sounds like it’s set to be a major event for sci-fi and horror fans. The wait isn’t long now, as the series lands on FX and Hulu this August.

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