A new timeline for Alien: Earth with respect to the first Alien movies is revealed 

Alien: Earth is set to make an FX debut in the Alien franchise on August 1, and while the episodic version of the franchise stands apart from all the movies, it does fall within the franchise’s long-standing canon timeline.

With seven films in the franchise—and a few more when counting the Alien vs. Predator movies—the timeline is well spread out, with all the sequels and prequels making it difficult to place the upcoming show.

Nevertheless, Noah Hawley, the creator of Alien: Earth, recently revealed where exactly the show falls in the franchise’s timeline. Here’s what he revealed.

Alien: Earth on the Alien franchise's timeline

The Alien universe is extremely vast and spread out over the years, from the first Alien movie, which was released in 1979 and set in 2122, to all the prequels and sequels that were released later, encompassing years from 2093 to the 2400s and beyond.

The Alien: Earth series stands apart from the universe in a way, considering its episodic nature, but it still has a place in the franchise’s timeline. According to Noah Hawley, in the continually expanding timeline, the series does not get extremely specific in terms of its position.

However, there are a few mentions of the events from the first film in Alien: Earth, ensuring that it is set after the events of the 1979 Alien and sometime before or after the events of the second film.

"I think we exist somewhere around Aliens, around the James Cameron story. I haven’t had to get crazy specific with it, but the events of the first film are referenced in the show at some point. So, I think it's somewhere around the events of the second film, either before or just after."

Even though the Alien: Earth live-action series stands apart from the rest of the franchise in its method of narration, the core values of the franchise are equally represented in the series.

"An Alien movie is a two-hour survival story. At the end of which, if you're lucky, one person survives [...] A television show can't be that. It has to be multiple characters with conflicts and dynamics that play out over multiple seasons."

At its core, the franchise thematically explores ideas of corporate greed, unchecked technological advancements, and existentialism. Alien: Earth takes these core themes from the franchise and places them in the contemporary world, where corporate greed and unchecked technological advancements rock the world in a completely unprecedented way.

"I don't think that in the ‘80s and the ‘70s, they could have envisioned the Elon Musks of the world at that point. So, corporate, yes, but we're in a different era, and I felt like in order to make it feel contemporary, we needed to address that idea that this whole thing is sort of the whim of this prodigy, and that what you get in a corporation is a diffused decision system, where nobody actually decides. "

Alien: Earth honors the contemporary era in this way—placing the world at the feet of a prodigy’s whims. And even though this world stands apart from the ideas that contributed to the original films, corporate greed and existential issues continue to terrorize humanity, now worse than ever.

"It's nobody's fault, and therefore it doesn't have to be a human decision. I think what we've reached now is something worse in a way."

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