Alien franchise lands at Marvel with creative team and release date reveal

Marvel has carved out a date (and the creative team) for their first comic book series based on the sci-fi film franchise Alien.

This March, writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Salvador Larroca (with coloring by Guru-FX) will launch the Marvel comic book series Alien. 

"Featuring both new and classic characters from Earth and beyond, this bold take on the Alien mythology will entertain both longtime fans and newcomers to the legendary horror/science-fiction saga," Marvel's press release reads. "The new story will feature a Weyland-Yutani mercenary named Gabriel Cruz as he battles a deadly new breed of xenomorph with the survival of his child hanging in the balance."

This ongoing Marvel comic book series will begin in March 2021.

"Just as a reader and fan, I was as excited as anyone when I heard the franchise was coming to Marvel, and when they asked me to write the launch, I was floored. I've been training my whole life for this gig without knowing it," Johnson says in the announcement. "Ever since seeing Ridley Scott's Alien at way too young an age, I've been obsessed with the xenomorph, the single most iconic representation of terror on film."

Marvel's acquisition of the Alien franchise for comic books was announced simultaneous to the procurement of the Predator license. Both were owned by 20th Century Fox, and part of their sale to the Walt Disney Company in 2019. 

Marvel hasn't specified their plans for Predator, but the publisher has confirmed their version of the Predator franchise will kick off in 2021 as well, so stay tuned to Newsarama for more.

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