If you’re looking for a peaceful night’s sleep, we suggest you stay far, far away from the trailer for FX’s Alien: Earth. But if you’re looking for grotesque science fiction and the promise of some gnarly new monsters, you’ve come to the right place.
Created by Noah Hawley, the Emmy-winning creator of Fargo and Legion, this Alien prequel doesn’t take us to the deepest reaches of space. Instead, it brings extraterrestrial terror right to our home planet.
The horrors start when a Weyland-Yutani deep space research vessel crash lands in Prodigy city, named for the Prodigy Corporation. Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) decides he wants to take possession of whatever is on that ship, so he sends a team of soldiers to take stock of the wreckage.
These aren’t ordinary soldiers, though. They’re hybrids: humanoid robots implanted with human consciousness. That sets them apart from the Alien films’ synthetics, which are humanoid robots with artificial consciousness.
Prodigy’s team of hybrids may be faster, stronger, and more resilient than other humans, but they’re about to meet their match as they explore the crashed USCSS Maginot. As Alien: Earth‘s trailer reveals, the Maginot collected five monstrous life forms from across the universe. But now they’re escaped captivity, meaning Earth is in serious trouble.
Alien: Earth‘s trailer doesn’t spoil too much about its alien adversaries, but there are enough hints at their appearance to send chills up your spine. Tentacled eyeballs, egg sacs, and goo abound, along with flashes of the iconic Xenomorph.
Produced by Alien director Ridley Scott, Alien: Earth also stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Babou Ceesay, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Essie Davis, Lily Newmark, Erana James, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Kit Young, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El, and Sanda Yi Sencindiver.
Alien: Earth premieres Aug. 12 at 8 p.m. ET on Hulu and FX.
