Is Alien: Earth Part of the Alien Movies? Absolutely — But Don't Expect the Prequels

It premiered August 12, 2025, on FX and Hulu in the U.S., with Disney+ handling the international rollout the next day.

Created by Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley, the series is officially part of the Alien franchise and is set in the year 2120 — two years before Ridley Scott's 1979 original, when Ellen Ripley and the Nostromo crew made first contact with a xenomorph. But Hawley isn't building off the last decade of prequel films (Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and 2024's Alien: Romulus). Instead, he's charting a separate path that nods to familiar elements like xenomorphs and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation without making them the story's spine.

What we know so far:

• First Alien TV series, and first live-action story on Earth.
• Set in 2120, two years before the original Alien.
• Officially in the franchise timeline but narratively independent.
• Does not reference Prometheus, Covenant, or Romulus — but doesn't directly contradict them either.

That last point has been the biggest source of fan debate since Hawley's early interviews. A recent review claimed the show "erases" the events of the prequels, going so far as to say Peter Weyland never launched the Prometheus mission and Michael Fassbender's David "was never built." Viewers who have seen advance episodes say that's an overreach.

"He basically said he's not taking inspiration from the prequels. Not that their events are deleted from the timeline," one Reddit user wrote.

Another called the review "just a shit clickbait article," adding, "Hawley has not actually said that the Prometheus mission never happened and David was never built."

Those who've watched up to six episodes confirm the same: Alien: Earth doesn't mention the prequels, but nothing in it rules them out.

"It means those stories don't factor into the writing," one commenter explained. "Unlike Romulus, it's not going to reference them."

Some lore-minded fans have zeroed in on potential continuity hiccups — like the appearance of the M41A pulse rifle decades before its supposed adoption — but even those details are being chalked up to fan service rather than canon-breaking. As one longtime franchise follower put it,

"Both can exist without negating each other. It's a huge galaxy, and whatever David did is one little corner."

For now, the series stands as its own beast: set firmly in Alien's world, unburdened by prequel baggage, and determined to tell its story without engineering a franchise-wide retcon. Whether that gamble pays off for Hawley and FX will depend on how audiences react once they've seen more than the first week's episodes.