"And I auditioned again" - Alien: Earth star Alex Lawther opens up about how he got introduced to the iconic franchise

Created by Noah Hawley, Alien: Earth, is a sci-fi horror series that is based on the much-loved Alien movies. The series premiered recently on FX and FX on Hulu on August 12, 2025 and will be available internationally on Disney+.

Starring Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Sydney Chandler, and others, Alien: Earth brings back the famous Alien franchise for a new generation of viewers. The first TV show in the franchise, Alien: Earth is set in 2120 and takes place two years before the events of the original 1979 movie starring Sigourney Weaver.

The show is therefore a prequel and it revolves around a space vessel called Maginot, which crash-lands on Earth. Now, a young woman and a group of tactical soldiers must confront a threat to humanity as samples of several different alien life forms have become free to grow after the crash landing.

The young woman is Wendy (Chandler) and she is a human-synthetic hybrid. Alex Lawther plays the role of Hermit, who is the brother of Marcy, who in turn, is the conscious person inside Wendy’s artificial body.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Lawther, known for his roles in The End of the F***ing World, talks about how he got introduced to the Alien franchise.

Alien: Earth stars Alex Lawther opens up about how he got introduced to the famous franchise

Actor Lawther mentions in his interview that he had watched the first Alien movie a while back and for his role in Alien: Earth, he had the “pleasure to revisit that first release, with Sigourney Weaver.” He mentions that the movie, “lodged itself in me somewhere.”

Talking about how he got the part in Alien: Earth, he opens up and states that he was sent some scenes for auditioning and the show was known as Mr. October at the time. While the studios like to hide and not tell the actors what they are auditioning for, some agents get to know and inform the actors about the project.

So Lawther mentions that they told him that “we think it’s Alien. Send some self-tapes.” Therefore, the actor gave his audition and even auditioned once more with the casting director, Kate Rhodes James. Finally, Alex Lawther got to meet Noah Hawley as well.

Lawther mentions that, “it was like an ever-evolving thing in terms of Noah’s writing process. I think the scripts…were there from before we went to Thailand to shoot, but it was kind of a movable feast…the project itself was like a breathing animal, growing as were making it…and that mutation continued into the edit.”

Alex Lawther on creator Noah Crawley’s vision for Alien: Earth

In his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Lawther talks about how creator Noa Hawley, “walks that really fine line between loyalty to the source material that is well-loved and already well-consumed, but also being led by his own curiosity into whatever that might be…. So there was homework, watching the original films…but…we were very much within Noah Hawley’s world, rather than anyone else’s.”

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Alien: Earth is available in US on FX and FX on Hulu and internationally on Disney+

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