What is the timeline of Alien: Earth? Details explained 

Alien: Earth, the latest movie in the Alien franchise, takes place in 2120, as a prequel to the original 1979 Ridley Scott movie Alien. The franchise timeline was quite messy to begin with, so it comes as a shock to viewers that the latest series is set as a prequel to the original movie in the canon, and that it is set on Earth.

The fact that this show would essentially bring the Xenomorph to Earth, some time before the events of the 1979 movie, continues to baffle fans, however considering the fact that Scott is an executive producer on Alien: Earth, they must have something sinister brewing in their minds to place the movie at this point of time in the franchise. Here's a look at the timeline and where exactly the FX series falls in it.

Alien: Earth Timeline Details Explored

Alien: Earth, an 8-episode-long prequel to Scott's 1979 Alien, the first movie in this franchise, is all set to premiere with its first two episodes on August 12 at FX, after which it will drop one episode every Tuesday until September 23, 2025.

The show is set in the year 2120, only two years prior to the events of Alien, which was set in 2122, and well after the events in Prometheus and Resurrection. The timeline of the franchise is, albeit a little messed up and can be a bit confusing with all the crossovers and the prequels, but maybe the series is attempting to get a fresh start by placing the series at a point where Earth has no knowledge about the creatures, because the prequels before this have mainly focused on the origin of the creatures and their creators' mythology.

The fact that the series is set in 2120 gives it a lot of room to work, because the prequels placed earlier have missions that have had disastrous endings, with several lives lost. If the series is successful, it could progress into a timeline that runs parallel to the original movie.

Alien: Earth recently dropped an official trailer revealing some key information about the Earth, which the series is set in. The synopsis reads as such:

"In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named “Wendy” marks a new dawn in the race for immortality."

The trailer reveals Sydney Chandler's Wendy embarking on a dangerous mission with a ragtag team:

After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, “Wendy” and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined. When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s Alien: Earth.

It will be extremely exciting to witness how the events of Alien: Earth fit into the franchise, considering its placement only two years before the original film. The series does have breathing room now, considering this placement, and can stand on its own without having to take into consideration the events of all the other projects that've been released before it in the franchise.

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