Get ready Alien fans, because the first TV show in the franchise is set to have even more Xenomorphs, Facehuggers, and creatures than ever before, with more screentime than the monsters were allowed in previous movies.
"We're seeing more [of the] Xenomorph than any of these movies," Alien: Earth director Dana Gonzales to Collider. "All the movies, if you really study them, are like, 20 frames, two seconds, they show the Xenomorph. We have huge sequences where all you're seeing is the Xenomorph."
But the Xenomorph has had a little upgrade, as creator Noah Hawley said, "I always felt like it was the least effective when it looked like a guy in a suit," pointing out that the Xenomorph in the original movie can look a little too human at some points. "It's very black in the movie. I wanted to play into more of the bug-like quality of it, so maybe it falls a little more in the roach coloration."
Oh, and it can jump too. Director Gonzales explained how with new stunt techniques and wirework, the team was able to "fly the Xeno around," and feature the monster in its full glory rather than only showing parts of it, like so many of the Alien movies do. "So it's not so much just coming out and scaring you and having that kind of jump scare," said Gonzales. "It's literally flying through the air. It's chasing. There's a lot that supports the fact that you see it, and I don't know if those other films had that."
As well as the Xenomorph, the show will include a bunch of different creatures. The series begins with a team of space explorers aboard the USCSS Maginot, researching five different Alien lifeforms, including the Orchid, the Eye Midge, the Facehugger, and the Xenomorph. However, when the spacecraft crash-lands on Earth, the creatures are set loose. In the most recent Alien: Earth trailer, we saw a baby Xenomorph, a strange flower-bud-like creature, and an infected goat.
But just because you have seen some of those creatures before, don’t expect to know exactly how they operate. "I am trying to re-mystify Alien," said Hawley. "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… 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!'"
Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, Adarsh Gourav, Kit Young, Timothy Olyphant, and more.
Alien: Earth premieres on FX and Hulu in the US on August 12, and will start streaming on Disney Plus in the UK from August 13. For more, check out our list of the best alien movies, and keep up with the most exciting upcoming shows.
