Earth Modified the Franchise’s Canon Lore

Warning! This text comprises SPOILERS for Alien: Earth season 1.Disney and FX’s Alien: Earth made some substantial modifications to the canon lore of the Alien franchise, and these seven additions recontextualize all the universe. Alien: Earth is not essentially absolutely canon. It was initially envisioned as being “parallel” to the main Alien motion pictures and their canon, however there’s additionally a robust case to be made that it’s truly a canon addition to the franchise.

The occasions of Alien: Earth, for instance, do not outright contradict something that was beforehand established or hinted at within the canon Alien motion pictures. The present additionally provides fairly a little bit of context and texture to the franchise, and it expanded our understanding of Alien to an immeasurable diploma. Assuming Alien: Earth is canon, these seven particulars marked the most important modifications to our understanding of the franchise.

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Xenomorphs Made It To Earth In Alien Canon

Xenomorphs did make it to Earth within the Alien vs. Predator motion pictures, however these are now not thought of canon. Ridley Scott’s prequel duology — Prometheus and Alien: Covenant — outmoded the occasions of the AvP franchise and turned them into principally “what if” crossover motion pictures. As such, Xenomorphs had by no means canonically been to Earth previous to Alien: Earth.

Clearly, nevertheless, Alien: Earth modified that. As we now know, Yutani commissioned the USCSS Maginot to gather samples of varied alien lifeforms and convey them again to Earth, together with the Xenomorph. Remarkably, by the end of Alien: Earth season 1, the Xenomorphs on Earth had wreaked surprisingly little harm. Most of it was contained to Neverland Island and the Prodigy Company.

That comparatively small quantity of harm is a big change from the AvP motion pictures, which famously noticed the Xenomorphs and Yautja trigger absolute mayhem on Earth. Alien: Earth additionally modified the timeline of the Xenomorphs’ first go to to Earth from about 2004 to the yr 2120, simply two years earlier than the unique Alien in the Alien timeline.

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Weyland-Yutani Knew About Xenomorphs Earlier than The Nostromo Discovered LV-426

Because of happening two years earlier, Alien: Earth was additionally in a position to recontextualize the unique Alien. As such, we now know that Weyland-Yutani was utterly conscious of Xenomorphs and their capabilities when the Nostromo was diverted to LV-426. Yutani specifically knew precisely what the Xenomorphs had been able to, and she or he probably knew that the Nostromo‘s crew can be decimated.

That element does not utterly change the unique Alien, but it surely does add one other sinister layer to the nefarious Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s history. It exhibits that from the very begin, Weyland-Yutani was at all times hell-bent on securing the Xenomorphs, and that it will sacrifice anybody and something to get a dwell specimen.

Curiously, Alien: Earth additionally has plans to dive deeper into Weyland-Yutani’s determination to divert the Nostromo. Noah Hawley, the creator of Alien: Earth, informed Vanity Fair that he’d prefer to adapt Weyland-Yutani’s aspect of that call in future seasons of Alien: Earth.

“However I do know that at a sure level, the Weyland-Yutani Company goes to divert the Nostromo to that planet. We’ve got the chance to possibly see what was taking place on the opposite aspect of that telephone name.”

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Xenomorphs Aren’t The Solely Hostile Aliens In House

For many years, we have assumed that the Xenomorphs are the one aliens in house within the Alien franchise. Alien vs. Predator did set up that the Yautja are additionally on the market, however as earlier talked about, these movies are now not canon. Aliens additionally mentions the Arcturians, however there is not any indication that the Colonial Marines weren’t speaking a few human colony on the planet Arcturius.

Prometheus additionally launched the Engineers, however they’re a complicated race of clever beings. Alien: Earth, nevertheless, confirmed that the Xenomorphs are definitely not the one animalistic, hostile alien species within the galaxy. We now know of a minimum of 4 different species that want humanity hurt, due to the five alien lifeforms in Alien: Earth.

That one determination expanded the Alien universe greater than a number of of the primary motion pictures did. Evidently Xenomorphs aren’t very distinctive, and that the broader Alien universe is a really harmful place to be. The 5 species in Alien: Earth had been additionally simply the primary ones the exploratory mission of the Maginot had been capable of finding; there may properly be much more creepy crawlies lurking in the dead of night.

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Weyland-Yutani Wasn’t The Solely Mega-Company On Earth

Courtesy of FX 

One other massive change Alien: Earth made to our understanding of the franchise pertains to Weyland-Yutani as soon as once more. In all of the Alien motion pictures, Weyland-Yutani is depicted as an nearly all-powerful, omnipresent mega-corporation. They dominate house delivery lanes, extraterrestrial colonies, and principally every part else. It is not till Alien Resurrection that we even hear of one other firm, and that is over 200 years after the unique Alien.

Given Weyland-Yutani’s ubiquity, it was straightforward to imagine they had been the one mega-corporation on Earth, or a minimum of the one one value mentioning for almost all of Alien‘s timeline. Alien: Earth, nevertheless, dispelled that concept and launched 4 new firms that managed Earth like governments. Alien: Earth‘s 5 firms — Weyland-Yutani, Prodigy, Dynamic, Lynch, and Threshold — change our understanding of the franchise’s company dystopia.

Weyland-Yutani wasn’t simply working with full abandon on account of having no actual competitors. As Alien: Earth proved, they had been actively in search of a bonus in opposition to their competitors. It explains why they had been so determined for a dwell Xenomorph, and really helps clarify a few of their ruthless enterprise ways.

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Alien: Earth Confirmed David Did not Create The Xenomorphs

After the releases of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, it appeared just like the prequels had been making an attempt to say that Michael Fassbender’s David, the rogue artificial, was the creator of the Xenomorphs. He did, in any case, bio-engineer the Protomorph in Covenant, and the ending of that movie noticed him safe a whole ship filled with take a look at topics to proceed his experiments.

Nevertheless, there was additionally a robust implication that the Xenomorphs existed earlier than David. There have been murals on the partitions of the Engineers’ ship that depicted the Xenomorphs, and the Final Engineer seemingly acknowledged his personal creation. Nonetheless, it wasn’t confirmed a method or one other, till Alien: Earth confirmed that it wasn’t David who created the Xenomorphs.

The USCSS Maginot, which was carrying a basic Xenomorph specimen, was despatched on its journey 65 years previous to the occasions of Alien: Earth. The present takes place in 2120, that means the Maginot left Earth in 2055 and located the Xenomorph specimen in roughly 2087. David, nevertheless, did not even learn about Xenomorphs till 2093, that means they existed lengthy earlier than him.

Whereas this can be a slight deviation from the story Prometheus and Covenant had been organising, it isn’t a serious change. As beforehand famous, there may be a variety of proof in Prometheus itself to counsel that the Xenomorphs predate David. Alien: Earth is solely a extra direct affirmation of what Prometheus was hinting at.

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Alien: Earth Gave Us So Many Insights Into Xenomorphs

Although it did characteristic a number of different alien lifeforms, Alien: Earth additionally devoted a considerable period of time to filling out the gaps in our data of Xenomorphs. It is exhausting to overstate simply how a lot info Alien: Earth added into the overall data of Xenomorphs. It gave us particulars concerning the species’ life cycle, physiology, social points, and even habits.

Put merely, Alien: Earth completely changed how we view Xenomorphs. Simply to record a number of new particulars the present gave us: it confirmed that Xenomorph facehuggers infect hosts with a tadpole-like larva, that grownup Xenomorphs will shield their younger, that Xenomorphs communicate a language and may be issued instructions, and way more.

Alien: Earth gave us a lot factual details about Xenomorphs that it is not possible to record all of it in a single record entry. The sheer quantity of data Alien: Earth gave us made me understand how little we truly knew about Xenomorphs, even after practically half a century and 7 motion pictures, numerous comics and books, video video games, and extra.

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Prodigy Established That There’s A Race For Immortality In The Alien Universe

Probably the most broad modifications Alien: Earth made to our understanding of the Alien franchise additionally pertains to the companies ruling Earth. Because of Alien: Earth, we now know that the mega-corporations had been engaged in a form of race to realize human immortality. That element alone utterly redefines every part from the prevalence and improvement of synthetics to Weyland-Yutani’s seek for extraterrestrial life.

We knew from Prometheus that Peter Weyland was trying to find the important thing to everlasting life, however Alien: Earth confirmed us that his objective was way more widespread. This idea of human immortality knowledgeable each single determination the companies of the present made and might be the only most essential existential query in all the Alien franchise.

Immortality is not only a lens to view Alien by way of, both. It had an precise impression on the galaxy. Weyland-Yutani, for instance, was actively growing cyborgs as an try to extend human life. It is also the rationale Boy Kavalier and Prodigy had been so hell-bent on growing human-synthetic hybrids. Simply by emphasizing the significance of immortality, Alien: Earth modified Alien at a elementary stage.

Launch Date

August 12, 2025

Administrators

Dana Gonzales, Ugla Hauksdóttir, Noah Hawley

Writers

Bob DeLaurentis

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