Alien: Earth showrunner says the new series could confirm one of the original film's longest standing mysteries

If you've seen any Alien movie, you'll be all too aware that human life (or synthetic's for that matter) doesn't mean much to shady corporation Weyland-Yutani. One mystery that has always left fans theorizing, though, is how much the company's executives really knew about the Xenomorph threat before sending Ripley and the rest aboard the Nostromo to LV-426.

Some are convinced they were just as in the dark as the crew (and that Special Order 937 was something they installed into every mission), others think they knew something was out there but underestimated what a grave danger it was, while others – largely down to its last minute decision to send Ian Holm's shifty robot Ash –  are adamant it was fully aware of what Sigourney Weaver and co were wading into when they answered that "distress" signal.

Now, Alien: Earth showrunner Noah Hawley has hinted that the upcoming TV spin-off could wind up confirming things either way...

"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," he recently explained to Vanity Fair. "But I do know that at a certain point, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is going to divert the Nostromo to that planet. We have the opportunity to maybe see what was happening on the other side of that phone call."

While he doesn't elaborate further, it seems likely that Hawley is referencing sleeper agent Ash's implicit communications with Weyland-Yutani after the Nostromo receives the transmission from the extraterrestrial-filled derelict ship in the 1979 film.

Executive produced by franchise creator Ridley Scott, Alien: Earth takes place in 2120  – Alien is set two years later – and centers on Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a synthetic with the body of an adult and the mind of a child, who volunteers to retrieve precious (and judging by the official trailer, incredibly deadly) cargo from the downed USCSS Maginot in mysterious metropolis Prodigy City.

Timothy Olyphant plays Kirsh, Wendy's synth mentor and trainer, while David Rysdahl, Jonathan Ajayi, Lily Newmark, Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav, Erana James, Babou Ceesay, Essie Davis, and Alex Lawther round out the supporting cast.

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 guide to all the most exciting upcoming shows of the year.