2024 has been an exciting year for theAlienfranchise, andone upcoming project significantly increases the chances of Michael Fassbender’s return. After years away from the franchise followingAlien: Covenant, the saga seems to have found its footing in the 2020s withAlien: Romulus, the popular new sequel film. Beyond that, FX is developing aTV prequel titledAlien: Earth, withFargo’sshowrunner Noah Hawley leading the project. For various reasons, this could be one of the most exciting projects the franchise has seen.
GivenAlien: Romulus’box office success and the excitement building around the new show, the franchise could reach new heights over the coming years. The 2010s saw Ridley Scott return to the series with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, though both films received mixed reviews upon their release and still remain divisive among audiences. While they may not bethe bestAlienmoviesindividually,there’s near-unanimous praise for Michael Fassbender’s performance as David. He’s one of the franchise’s best characters, and audiences still crave more of him.
Alien: Earth Is A Prequel Set Around The Same Time As Prometheus
Alien: Earth Will Incorporate The Weyland-Yutani Corporation
In theAlientimeline, the new series is set to be a prequel (in relation to 1979’sAlien). It will take place slightly beforePrometheus, meaningit will explore a world where the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is still under the control of Peter Weyland, though it’s unknown if he’ll appear in the series. This will be the first project in the franchise to take place on Earth, showing the imagined state of the world in the 2090s. While the show looks to be focused on exploring new characters, it still leaves plenty of room forPrometheuscharacters to return.
A synopsis fromDeadlineexplained that the show would"deal with the emergence of the story’s infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the race between corporations to create new android life.“Androids have always been staples of theAlienfranchise, with David being arguably the most important. Seeing the political/economic strife surrounding Weyland-Yutani’s affairs should be fascinating, as they’ve been a phantom threat looming over the franchise since the very beginning.
Alien: Romulusgave a small taste of what human civilization would grow to look like in the mining colony early in the film. Corrupt corporations run rampant during this time with little regard for human life, andAlien: Earthcan provide a glimpse at the progression to this state.Alien Resurrectionshows a doomed version of the planet, but civilization is still intact decades before this, and it doesn’t seem like it will be as ruinous as, say, the depiction of Earth inBlade Runner, Ridley Scott’s other sci-fi world.
Michael Fassbender Wouldn’t Have To Be David Or Walter In Alien: Earth
Michael Fassbender Could Play A Different Android
Alienaudiences know Michael Fassbender as David or Walter, but it might not be too advantageous to directly bring back either character. Given that it’s a prequel,seeing David in anything more than a cameo wouldn’t be all too compelling, as movie fans already know the gist of his character pre-Prometheusfrom theAlien: Covenantflashback. As for Walter, there doesn’t seem to be much more to explore with that version of the character, as he’s essentially a plot device for the 2017 movie. But the beauty of android characters is Fassbender could return without being either.
Does Alien: Romulus Connect to the Upcoming Alien TV Show?
Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone story, but could it be connected to the upcoming Alien: Earth TV show?
In the world ofAlien, Fassbender’s physical appearance is just a model for a variety of androids.He could arrive at any time playing an unimportant, unnamed androidwho’s none-the-wiser to the malevolent destruction that would eventually be caused by his brother, David. It may not be particularly interesting to see Fassbender return as athirdandroid character, but having him appear briefly on the show could be a fun way to tether the prequel movies to the prequel show, establishing some cohesion and giving a nod to the lore from those films.
InAlien: Romulus, Sir Ian Holm appears posthumously as the android Rook after appearing in the originalAlienmovie as the android Ash. While his appearance is one of the manyAlienreferences in the film, he’s also appearing as an entirely different character. Rook may have many similarities to Ash in appearance and demeanor, but they’re different androids.
Alien: Romulus Has Already Moved Away From Prometheus & Covenant
Alien: Romulus Takes The Franchise In A Different Direction Than David’s Story
The new movie was praised for its connections to the various installments of theAlienfranchise, including Ridley Scott’s prequels. But while it incorporated the black goo fromPrometheus, the film ultimately steers the franchise’s ship back toward the premise of the originalAlienfilm. Rather than exploring the mythology of this universe, and the existential concepts of androids, mankind, and creation myths,Alien: Romulusleans into character-driven monster horror. Thus, it doesn’t seem like the movie saga will continue to explore Ridley Scott’s lore, at least in the same capacity as before.
Bringing back David at this point is unlikely, and it would be hard forAlien: Earthto examine ideas about the Engineers
While it’s unclear whetherAlien: Earthwill be taking a uniform direction withAlien: Romulusand its sequels,it seems certain that the storyline ofPrometheusandCovenantis concluded for the time being. Bringing back David at this point is unlikely, and it would be hard forAlien: Earthto examine ideas about the Engineers or the existential questions from the prequel movies, given that those events haven’t happened yet on the timeline. Still, Michael Fassbender returning as a different character isn’t impossible.
Alien: Earth Could Completely Retcon Prometheus’ Xenomorph Origin Story
Alien: Earth Would Show Humanity’s First Contact With A Xenomorph
One of the strange things aboutAlien: Earthis that the show intends to feature a Xenomorph, raising many questions about the franchise’s timeline.PrometheusandCovenantexamine an origin story for the Xenomorph through theEngineers' black goo, demonstrating how the aliens would be created through human vessels with the cycle of facehuggers, chestbursters, and fully grown Xenomorphs.If these creatures were to appear onAlien: Earth, it would redefine humanity’s first contact with them, making drastic changes to the lore of the films.
Alien’s Massive Franchise Retcon Risks Making Ripley’s Entire Story Pointless
By bringing the xenomorph to Earth, FX’s upcoming TV show Alien: Earth threatens to make Ripley’s story in the Alien saga completely pointless.
EvenAlien: Romulusrelies on the idea that Weyland-Yutani wanted to search the original Nostromo ship to gather information about the Xenomorph. This could be because they’d already seen one before inAlien: Earthand didn’t have an opportunity to study it, but that explanation gets a bit dicey. Having a Xenomorph appear in the TV prequel seems to indicate some changes will be made to the lore of the films, and it will be interesting to see whereAlien: Earthtakes the series.
Sources:Deadline
Alien: Earth
When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.
