Not sure if you’ve heard, but Disney isn’t just for kids. In fact, the mouse and his pals are so keen to prove how cool they are that they’ve spent the summer lugging an ice cream stand around UK festivals. Instead of flogging, say, Frozen ice lollies, however, they’ve been serving up confectionery inspired by Only Murders In The Building and, yes, the long-awaited Alien: Earth.
While someone should gently point out to our big-eared friend that no-one past the age of seven wants a themed ice cream, this does indicate Disney+’s dedication to cornering the all-ages streaming market. Available exclusively via that platform in the UK (though produced by FX Productions), the scaly Alien franchise’s first live action TV spin-off has been in the works since 2018.
The eight-episode show opens in 2120, a couple of years before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley came face to horrible face with the titular creature in 1979’s Alien, and the initial set-up will be familiar to anyone who’s ever come within spitting distance of a Xenomorph. Onboard the space vessel Maginot, crew members wake up from cryogenic freezers, stretch, yawn and chat shit in a mess hall that embodies the no-frills steam-punk aesthetic we’ve become well acquainted with. Alas, they’re transporting “specimens” collected from the deepest recesses of outer space and when a Xenomorph inevitably escapes to wreak havoc, things go from bad to batshit as the ship crash lands onto our hapless planet.
Here, a terminally ill girl has been transplanted into a cyborg’s body and come to be known as Wendy (played by Sydney Chandler). Still a child but now with the appearance of an adult, she’s obsessed with her medic brother, Hermit (Alex Lawther), who’s been led to believe that she’s dead. When Hermit’s enlisted to explore the Maginot, Wendy vows to keep him safe – little knowing what lurks amongst the wreckage.
For the first two episodes, at least, that’s pretty much it plot-wise, yet writer and showrunner Noah Hawley – who similarly reinvented Fargo for the small screen – has packed this stunningly successful spin-off with big ideas. Expect a timely trillionaire plutocrat (by way of Samuel Blenkin’s oily man-child Boy Kavalier), AI-adjacent tech anxiety and a thoughtful look at the erosion of childhood innocence (bolstered via recurring clips from Disney’s Peter Pan cartoon). It even has a banging soundtrack, with Black Sabbath’s ‘The Mob Rules’ closing episode one in spectacular fashion.
The ship’s crash-landing into one of Kavalier’s skyscrapers is truly cinema-worthy, while Hawley has dreamt up nightmarish new creatures to skitter among the Xenomorphs – who themselves are about as fearsome as they’ve ever been. That last point is particularly impressive, given how unsparingly they’re depicted. Where the first movie built suspense through glimpses of the hideous creature, Hawley goes all-out early on to ensure we come back for more.
So Earth combines the creeping dread of Alien, the dizzying ultra-violence of Aliens and even a splash of the silliness that made the unfairly dismissed Alien: Resurrection such a blast. Ridley Scott, who directed the original movie, co-executive-produced this show but there’s thankfully none of the ponderous nonsense that made his Prometheus and Alien: Covenant prequels a bit of a drag.
Instead, Hawley has honoured the films’ unmistakable tone while somehow conjuring a universe that is entirely his own. The result is probably the Xenomorphs’ best outing since Aliens, proving this franchise is often licked but never beaten.
‘Alien: Earth’ is released in the UK on August 13 via Disney+