Despite a teaser promo for the series recently being released, we still know very little about Alien: Earth beyond a brief logline (see below), but creator Noah Hawley has now shared some intriguing new details about the most important aspect of the project: the Xenomprphs!
Though the show is set in the (seemingly) safe confines of Earth before the events of Ridley Scott's masterpiece, the titular acid-secreting beasties will still feature - but they might differ somewhat to the Xenos we're used to seeing on the big screen.
While speaking to Deadline on the red carped of last night's Emmy Awards, Hawley teased a "chilling" new take on the Alien.
“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. What was really fun for me was to really engage with the creature, bring some of my own thoughts to the design while not touching the silhouette, because that’s sacrosanct.”
“But some of the elements as we know, whatever the host is, informs what the final creature is,” he added. “I just wanted to play around a little bit to make it as scary as it should be.”
It doesn't sound like this new creature design will deviate too much from the original, but Hawley's comments definitely suggest that we will see a Face-hugger attach itself to a non-human host.
This has only happened once before in the franchise, when Alien 3 introduced the divisive "dog-buster" (though it was an ox in the Assembly Cut), so it'll be very interesting to find out what Hawley has in store here.
In a separate interview with Variety, Hawley spoke about getting Ridley Scott and Sigourney Weaver's blessing before moving forward with the series.
"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."
Along with Chandler, the series' expansive international cast includes Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille, and Moe Bar-El.