Alien: Earth: a terrifying, intelligent and exciting regeneration (critic)

If in space, nobody hears you screaming, what about on earth? Yes, the Alien series is scary, but not only! An exciting SF reflection is hidden behind the creatures. To see on Disney Plus.

Noah Hawley Metamorphic The Xenomorph!

With Alien: Earth, the Creator attacks one of the monuments of horrifying science fiction, and the fact with the same audacity that had marked his fargo-virtuoso tribute and reinvention of the universe of the coen brothers-then his legion, psychedelic and anti-conventional rereading of the X-Men universe, far from Marvelian tropisms. Here again, he imposes his style, rigorous, thoughtful, anchored in a vision and a sense of the rare characters.

In Alien: Earth, the story takes place in the year 2120. The earth began its conquest of the stars, and science never ceases to progress. So much so that you find cyborgs (increased humans) or synthetic (Androids) within the population. But this race for progress had a cost: democracies collapsed giving way to a corporatist plutocracy. Clearly, 5 big tech companies are now sharing power on earth and directing peoples. There are no more citizens. That employees, with contracts to be respected, work to be done, in exchange for a more or less comfortable life. Among these companies, the Weyland -Yutani Corporation – well known to fans of the saga – undertook a spatial mission to bring back to earth extraterrestrial organizations to exploit. Bad idea. The collected species escape, causing the crash of the vessel on our planet. Obviously, there is a xenomorph in the lot …

To give the body to Alien: Earth, Hawley does not just replay known scores. The showrunner is as interested in the reptilian creature – absolute legend of the 7th art, perfect predator and nightmarish host – as in the world around him. He widens the political and social subtext of the franchise: a future devoured by corporatism, where human life weighs nothing in the face of profit. True to SF culture, he poses a thousand questions about the future and humanity, without ever pretending to provide final answers. Ridley Scott, a tutelary figure of the saga, was only consulted purely symbolic. The master was able to give his opinion, but this vision is that of Hawley.

With his 8 episodes, Alien: Earth has time to install a new decor, and especially fascinating characters, starting with Wendy, played by a Sydney Chandler with a hypnotic look or the awful boy Kavalier – the Genie de la Tech boy who cleverly tickles the figures to the Elon Musk. This long format allows you to go further than the raw tension of an alien: Romulus (last cinema part, released in 2024). Where the film played the card of pure and hard survival, Alien: Earth explores the class struggle, the despair of a humanity crushed by the multinationals.

Alien’s mistress idea: Earth, almost subversive for the franchise, is therefore to bring the action to our level. For the first time, an alien is played entirely on earth. And if, in space, nobody hears you screaming, what about here below? Don’t worry. Noah Hawley fully assumes the horrific heritage of the franchise. The xenomorphs are omnipresent there, at least as terrifying as at the time. But they are joined – as a bonus – by other abominations from elsewhere, just as chilling. Special mention to this hyper-intelligent eye creature, which is installed in the orbit of its host to better take control of it … With its colossal budget around 250 million estimated dollars, Hawley had the means of its XXL ambitions. He managed to regenerate the saga, mixing visceral dread and social reflection. Perhaps the franchise has done best since James Cameron.

Alien: Earth, season 1 in 8 episodes, broadcast on Disney more from August 13 to September 23, 2025.