TV
Here’s the main reason Alien: Earth is set on Earth
The showrunner of Alien: Earth reveals the main reason why the series is set on our planet: nothing more or less than to make our hair stand on end.
‘Alien: Earth’ is the new series of Ridley Scott’s franchise that promises to make our hair stand on end in the year 2025. It is a new prequel to the saga that takes place thirty years before the first movie. Its creator has talked about the reason why this TV series is set on planet Earth: it is a deliberate decision to create enormous tension and a sense of unease for all that is at stake.
Alien: Earth’ and why it’s set on Earth, according to its creator
In a recent interview with Deadline, Noah Hawley, the creator of ‘Alien: Earth’, revealed the main reason why the new series about this terrifying creature will take place on our planet. “There’s something about seeing a Xenomorph in the wilds of Earth with your own eyes. That is truly chilling to think of it moving here among us, and so I can’t tell you under what circumstances you’ll see that, but you’ll see it — and you’re going to lock your door that night,” he commented.
“But some of the elements as we know, whatever the host is, informs what the final creature is. I just wanted to play around a little bit to make it as scary as it should be,” he said.
Hawley thinks Earth is a good place for a story about xenomorphs because the vast majority of stories we have seen about them in movies, comics and video games take place in space or on a distant planet or satellite. The fact that there is only one of these creatures roaming freely in our world is a deliberate choice to ensure that the threat of one of these creatures evolving into a queen that could begin a reproductive cycle is present.
‘Alien: Earth’ takes place three decades before the original ‘Alien’ from 1979. Since the movie was set in the year 2122, this new TV series takes place around the year 2090, so it could be set even earlier than ‘Prometheus’, for now the most back in time installment is set in the year 2093. This would mean that the first Xenomorph of the saga would no longer be the one in ‘Prometheus’, but the one in this series.
However, considering the possible continuity problems with the rest of the saga, since it is never mentioned that Earth is “lost” to the Xenomorphs, it is not expected that there will be a saturation or “infection” on a global scale. However, an intelligent way to maintain tension would be to allow for the possibility of an “outbreak” on a local scale that would conscientiously demonstrate the danger posed by these deadly creatures.