ALIEN: EARTH. Xenomorph in Neverland [REVIEW, Episodes 1-2]

I’ll start with a small confession: Alien: Romulus was my biggest cinematic disappointment of last year. The long-awaited return of the Xenomorph to the big screen turned out to be little more than a (well-staged, yet) set of empty calories—a parade of hollow references to the franchise’s history, reducing Alien to the role of a standard horror scare. For that reason, I wasn’t nervously biting my nails in anticipation of the series Alien: Earth, despite the fact that Noah Hawley, the creator of Legion and Fargo, was at the helm. After watching the first two episodes, however, I can cautiously say that my skepticism has, fortunately, been unfounded.

Although fan service is abundant in the series, the new Alien firmly stands on its own. The story takes place two years before the events of the Nostromo’s eighth passenger, on an Earth torn apart by a host of greedy corporations. While Weyland-Yutani naturally leads the race for power, competitors are not sitting idly by, and the main battleground is the robotics industry—whoever creates the better android will dominate the market.

From the first film, the Alien series has not only been about humanity’s clash with Xenomorphs but also about the unequal struggle of ordinary citizens against impersonal corporate behemoths willing to sacrifice anyone in pursuit of profit (or immortality—depending on who was steering the cycle at the time). Perhaps that is why the “perfect workers” take center stage here: cyborgs, androids (or, as Bishop would say, “artificial people”), and the latest commodity on the market—mechanical hybrids with transplanted human consciousness.

The last group includes Wendy, a twelve-year-old trapped in the robotic body of an adult woman, living with other adult-child hybrids in an isolated research facility aptly named “Neverland.” The opportunity for rapid maturation arises when a ship carrying an Alien and other extraterrestrial beings crashes on Earth. The emotional heart of the first two episodes is Wendy’s story—a child in an adult’s body—and her relationship with her brother Hermit, a military doctor trapped at the crash site.

Aesthetically, the series stands out through its deliberate contrast: on one hand, sprawling cities, Neverland almost staged as a paradisiacal garden, and quiet, introspective emotional moments; on the other, the fans’ beloved dimly lit corridors, tense stealth sequences, and bloody horror. Particularly symbolic is the scene in which billionaires sit atop skyscrapers arguing over business matters, while at the same time, ordinary employees of their companies fight desperately for survival in a collapsing building.

And how does the main attraction—the Alien itself—fare? I admit I have mixed feelings. When the Xenomorph acts, the creators film it with proper reverence, and the scenes of successive brutal killings are impeccably staged. On the other hand, the introduced hybrids of the cosmic predator—though impressive in terms of design—may turn out to be merely flashy and unnecessary additions. One can only hope that Hawley and company have not made the same mistake as Fede Álvarez, turning the greatest cosmic predator into a characterless monster.

For now, however, Hawley’s series looks very promising. At this stage, Alien: Earth intriguingly expands the universe we know from previous installments—the creators not only skillfully present the fictional world but also populate it with believable characters. The coming weeks will show whether this is enough to live up to the legend of the franchise.

Written by Jedrzej Paczkowski