FX/Hulu’s Alien: Earth Will Take Viewers Back to the Beginning

FX and Hulu’s upcoming prequel series Alien: Earth is set to premiere on August 12, 2025, and the streaming services revealed a final trailer (along with a new, more detailed synopsis) for the series, which, like the first trailer, previews a chilling and thoughtful take on the genre. The video features some of the more meditative, even existential footage from the earlier clip, mixing it with the kind of “jump in your seat” sci-fi horror that will no doubt enliven the series. There are glimpses of alien technology silently floating through space, as well as cadavers on a dimly lit floor, humans covered in blood desperately trying to flee the scene, and, lurking in the shadows, far away, a familiar black shape with four legs: a xenomorph.

The series is the hand of acclaimed showrunner Noah Hawley, who has revealed that the tone and mythology of Alien: Earth will more closely resemble Ridley Scott’s original Alien (1979) than the subsequent prequels and shared universe films like Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant. The eight-episode series is set in 2120, two years before the events of the first film, in a near-future Earth that’s not much different from our own. At the same time, major corporations are vying for control of humanity’s biggest prize: the promise of life, and life everlasting.

The tables turn, however, when the young but brilliant Founder and CEO of the Prodigy Corporation comes up with a technological innovation unlike any other: a humanoid robot with an actual human consciousness at its core.

Meet Wendy

A living, breathing humanoid robot with the brain of a child. The Prodigy Corporation makes use of these “hybrids” in its never-ending quest for immortality. This first hybrid, “Wendy” (played by Sydney Chandler), is a prototype in every sense. The series synopsis reads: “Described as ‘a child with the body of an adult,’ Wendy has the body of an adult and the consciousness of a child.”

The short-term serenity and safety of the world is disrupted, however, by the appearance of a crashed Weyland-Yutani spaceship outside of the city of Prodigy. Soon enough, Wendy and a band of other hybrids will come face-to-face with the unknown, alien organisms lurking inside the craft. “Deadlier than anything they could imagine, they unleash a new reign of terror.”

The ensemble cast also includes Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh (Wendy’s synthetic trainer and mentor), Alex Lawther as soldier CJ, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier (a calculating, power-hungry CEO), Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, Kit Young as Tootles, David Rysdahl as Arthur, Babou Ceesay as Morrow, Jonathan Ajayi as Smee, Erana James as Curly, Lily Newmark as Nibs, Diem Camille as Siberian, and Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins.

Did You Catch The Alien: Earth Trailer?

The Alien: Earth trailer initially dropped in January when it was surprise-released during the NFL’s AFC Championship game. No full synopsis or details were attached to the teaser, which was entirely shot from a xenomorph’s point of view as the monster chased someone (or something) down the corridor of the spaceship it was riding. The craft seemed to be on course to collide with the Earth, although that’s just one interpretation, one of the many theories about the origins of the xenomorph that appears in the original Alien (1979).

The basic outline is, of course, a staple of the history of mankind: human hubris pitted against an apex predator. The last trailer doubles down on that sense of dread, showing just how careful the series will be in setting up humanity’s inevitable downfall.

Critics and Alien: Earth

Expectations for Alien: Earth have already been carefully ramped up by FX and Hulu. In January, the streaming services made good on their big tease of the previous September’s surprise announcement by dropping an unannounced short teaser trailer for the show during the NFL’s AFC Championship game. That teaser was all in xenomorph POV: it opened with the movie star monster creeping around in low-light corridors, then chased something—or someone—down a hallway as the spaceship it was on careened out of control towards Earth on a collision course.

The whole sequence lasted just 20 seconds and offered no real context for viewers to latch on to. That was intentional: it was meant to titillate fans with a bunch of snippets and create a sense of paranoia and mystery. Last month’s first full trailer, by contrast, made it a lot more clear. The first episode opens, the trailer reveals, with the birth of Wendy on Neverland Research Island in 2120. When a nearby alien spaceship crash-lands on the island, the inquisitive Wendy volunteers to help her makers harvest the mysterious goods.

But instead of an opportunity for scientific advancement, the child-like cyborg comes across a grotesque massacre when she opens the spaceship’s doors. Five alien life forms, all dead, are inside. Deadly, mysterious, unknown species that, of course, will get brought back into a lab in true Alien fashion.

It’s an ominous set-up as old as the Alien franchise itself: human ingenuity at its peak pitted against an apex predator. This final trailer makes clear that this series is less about moment-to-moment thrills than it is about the long game, the slow but steady burn that gets humanity in trouble. Hawley is known for taking care with his projects, and Alien: Earth is no exception. Focusing on rich world-building and heavily on atmosphere, the series seems likely to dive deep into the moral and ethical conundrums its characters find themselves in when they go on the hunt for the xenomorph.

Alien: Earth premieres on FX and Hulu on August 12.