For more than four decades, the Alien franchise has haunted the imaginations of moviegoers and sci-fi fans alike. What began in 1979 as a claustrophobic space horror film directed by Ridley Scott has since mutated into a sprawling saga: seven movies, two Predator spin-offs, a new big-budget TV series, and a constellation of video games and comic books. Yet, as the franchise expands, so too do the headaches of keeping its continuity straight. The latest entry, FX’s "Alien: Earth," has reignited debates among fans and critics over just how much a beloved canon can bend before it breaks.
Set in the year 2120, "Alien: Earth" takes place just two years before the events of the original film. At first glance, this seems a clever way to explore the universe’s dark corners without straying too far from the source material. But as many have noticed, the series’ timeline and lore are starting to look a little wobbly. According to ScreenRant, the show’s narrative centers on the Maginot, a Weyland-Yutani ship whose crew returns to Earth after a staggering 65-year mission. Security officer Morrow (played by Babou Ceesay) is greeted by a changed world—and a corporate headquarters that still recognizes his Yutani passcode, despite the fact that, according to previous films, the Weyland-Yutani merger shouldn’t have happened until long after his ship left Earth.
This is more than just a nitpick for diehard fans. In Prometheus—one of the franchise’s three prequels, set in 2089—Weyland Corp still flies solo, with no sign of the Yutani merger that defines the later films. Yet "Alien: Earth" suggests the two companies had already joined forces before or during the Maginot’s journey, a detail that has left many scratching their heads. The show’s creators seem to have prioritized atmosphere over accuracy; the Maginot’s interior is nearly identical to the Nostromo’s, right down to the retro-futuristic computer displays. It’s a deliberate nod to the original film’s iconic aesthetic, but it doesn’t make much sense that ships launched more than 60 years apart would look so similar.
Showrunner Noah Hawley has made no secret of his approach. At SXSW 2025, he admitted, "It’s not that I didn’t do a timeline around the events. But I didn’t expand it to incorporate everything that had ever been written." He specifically named Prometheus as a part of the canon he didn’t feel compelled to follow closely. For some, this is a reasonable creative choice—after all, franchises as sprawling as Star Wars or Star Trek have struggled with similar continuity issues. For others, it’s a betrayal of the meticulous worldbuilding that made Alien a classic in the first place.
According to The Spectator, the show’s troubles go beyond timeline confusion. The plot, which sees the Maginot crashing into a Bangkok high-rise with a cargo hold full of deadly alien specimens—including a Xenomorph—contradicts the premise of the original film, where the Xenomorph was a completely unknown terror. In "Alien: Earth," the creature has already arrived on Earth two years before Ripley’s fateful encounter, undermining the original’s sense of discovery and dread. As the reviewer put it, "This is wantonly disrespectful to the canon."
But the show doesn’t stop at timeline gymnastics. Enter Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), the world’s youngest trillionaire—a character whose eccentricities evoke comparisons to real-life tech moguls. Kavalier’s obsession is immortality: he engineers synthetic bodies, or "hybrids," into which human consciousness can be implanted. The first prototype is Wendy (Sydney Chandler), who possesses the body of a young woman but the mind of an 11-year-old girl who was dying of cancer. In this new form, Wendy is promised eternal life and uncanny abilities, like leaping from cliffs without harm.
As the series unfolds, more hybrids join Wendy, all of them children in adult bodies, sent untrained into disaster zones teeming with killer aliens. The logic is questionable—why would anyone send traumatized, inexperienced kids to conduct a rescue mission in such peril? Yet, as The Spectator notes with a hint of exasperation, Boy Kavalier "for the flimsiest of reasons—thinks it makes perfect sense." The reviewer quips that the series might better be called "Alien: Daycare."
Despite these criticisms, "Alien: Earth" has been praised in some quarters for its commitment to the franchise’s signature mood: bleak, industrial, and tinged with existential dread. The series’ visuals, from the battered corridors of the Maginot to the retro computer fonts, evoke the original’s atmosphere with loving detail. But for many fans, these cosmetic touches aren’t enough to paper over what they see as glaring plot inconsistencies and a lack of respect for the story’s internal logic.
This isn’t the first time the franchise has courted controversy. As The Spectator’s reviewer recounts, the original Alien made history by introducing Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, one of cinema’s first true female action heroes. The film’s impact was seismic, reshaping the genre and setting a high bar for subsequent installments. But with each new entry—prequels, sequels, spin-offs, and now TV series—the challenge of maintaining a coherent universe has only grown. The introduction of hybrids and the retconning of the Xenomorph’s origins are, for some, just the latest in a long line of creative risks that haven’t always paid off.
Of course, continuity issues are hardly unique to Alien. As franchises age and expand, contradictions are almost inevitable. Sometimes, as with Star Wars, fans become adept at inventing elaborate explanations to reconcile the gaps. Other times, as seems to be the case here, the inconsistencies become too glaring to ignore. The question is whether these lapses truly diminish the enjoyment of the story, or whether they’re simply the price of keeping a beloved universe alive and evolving.
Showrunner Noah Hawley seems content to let the story take precedence over strict adherence to canon. For viewers willing to go along for the ride, "Alien: Earth" offers plenty of spectacle, atmosphere, and the kind of existential horror that made the original a classic. For purists, though, the show’s timeline gymnastics and narrative leaps may prove a bridge too far. As the franchise barrels ahead, one thing is clear: in the universe of Alien, the only constant is change.
