Alien: Earth is set two years before Alien, and if the show goes multiple seasons, it may just pull an Andor.
Alien: Earth is a TV prequel to the long-running movie franchise; one that kicks off in 2120, which is two years before the events of the original film.
We’ve seen the first six episodes, and wrote in our Alien: Earth review it’s “the best the franchise has been since Isolation,” so there’s lots to look forward to in the upcoming weeks.
There’s also one major difference between movie and show, but the timeline also means there’s potential for Alien: Earth to bleed into the 1979 Alien, just as Andor did in the Star Wars universe.
Why Alien: Earth is set two years before Alien
We recently spoke to Alien: Earth creator and showrunner Noah Hawley, and asked why the show is set in that specific year. “There were a few reasons,” came the response. “I think one as a way into the show – accessibility to an audience – if you realise ‘oh it’s before’ then on some level you think ‘oh I don’t have to have watched everything else to get into it.’
“The other is if you think about it, those first three films take place over the course of let’s say 100 years, of which Sigourney Weaver’s awake for nearly a year and a half, right? There’s a lot of negative space in there for us to work.
“And I think that because there’s such a lack of mythology in the Alien movies – about how humanity is organised – if we’re going to come to Earth and tell that story, it then informs all of the movies to go ‘oh, I see, well this is how humanity was organised when these movies started.’
How the show could pull an Andor
We also asked if characters from the movies could appear in future seasons of the show, and Hawley’s answer got us thinking about Andor, which was a Rogue One prequel for two seasons, until the show ended just moments before that movie began.
“There’s no crystal ball,” says Hawley of future seasons. “I don’t have it all worked out. I think what I would say is, is it plausible that the show might end up reaching the moment in which the movie begins and going beyond it? I think that’s certainly plausible.”
Hawley then speculates about how that might happen: “Could we see what’s happening on the other side of that phone call – the message sent to Ian Holm, to the ship – we could get there? I don’t know that we would literally do that, but certainly that’s where and when the story is taking place.”
So if Season 1 is a success and multiple seasons follow, don’t be surprised to see Alien: Earth doing what Andor did by brushing up against the events of Alien, and then potentially going where Star Wars didn’t, by moving past them.
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