The Xenomorph gets some terrifying new friends in Alien: Earth trailer

Alien comes to the small screen for the first time on August 12.

The Xenomorph gets some terrifying new friends in Alien: Earth trailer
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Alien: Earth wants to take you back in time. The new FX series from Fargo creator Noah Hawley serves as a prequel to Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie, focused on the planet that Ripley and co. left behind. But Hawley’s desire to turn back the clock extends past the show’s plot. “My job, as I have also discovered with Fargo, is to figure out what the original movie makes me feel and why, and then to recreate that feeling for you,” he told The A.V. Club in a recent interview. “I think we found a way to create that feeling of awe in you that only that original movie could create. So that’s my hope is that the real innovation here is to take everyone back to that place in 1979 or whenever you watched it, so you can go, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe how much that’s creeping me out.'”

The show’s new trailer certainly captures that eerie tone, but it also has a few surprises in store. Most notably: there’s not just one alien species, but “five different life forms from the darkest corners of the universe.” Even though many of this Earth’s humans are synthetic, that’s a lot to take on.

Here’s the official logline from FX:

In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler) marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, “Wendy” and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.

The Alien franchise now counts nine films among its ranks (including both Alien Vs. Predator films), but Alien: Earth marks its first flight to the small screen. “It felt like the way to give myself the most leeway as a storyteller was to take myself out of the traffic and put myself in a standalone place in which I could explore the mythology of Earth and humanity in this franchise,” Hawley said. A large cast, including Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, and Babou Ceesay, will help him do it. Alien: Earth premieres August 12 on FX and Hulu.

 
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