Alien: Earth creator explains why the sci-fi horror series is more than just a creature feature: "The next question is, does humanity deserve to survive?"

Alien: Earth may include the franchise's iconic Xenomorph, but the new series also aims to explore more man-made horrors.

"If you have a story about monsters coming to Earth, the question is, will humanity survive? Then the next question is, does humanity deserve to survive?" creator Noah Hawley ponders in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features Alien: Earth on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, July 16.

This idea about humanity and the terrible things that we do to each other, it really opened my mind as to the types of horror that would populate the show, not just body horror or creature horror, but also the moral horror of what people do."

Set just two years before the events of Alien, the FX series grapples with the emergence of major corporations, as well as an impending alien threat. Throw in a mysterious crash site and you-know-what lurking in the shadows, there's every reason to suggest humanity's days might be numbered.

It's been a long road for Hawley to get here, however.

"I came up with this Lost Boy/Peter Pan transhuman story. But it was pre-Disney [merger] and the film studio 20th [Century Fox] was not, in the end, willing to share the IP. It took a few more years before they were willing," the Alien: Earth creator explained.

Hawley continued, "But the good thing about taking all that time is that you stress-test it and you really workshop it and you earn it. It's like that first album, you have your whole life to write those songs and then it’s the second album that’s the hard one."

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Alien: Earth is on FX and Hulu in the US from August 12 and Disney Plus in the UK from August 13. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, July 16. Here's the Alien: Earth cover you need to be looking out for on newsstands below...