Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth was the surprise of last year's television: a franchise many had written off after Covenant, reborn as a slow, strange corporate horror story that drew more than nine million views in its first six days. The second season is now filming at Pinewood, and the cast list is growing in an unexpected direction.
Where did season one leave things?
In 2120, on an Earth run by five corporations, a research vessel crashed into the island headquarters of a young trillionaire's company with a cargo of live specimens, the Xenomorph among them. The season followed Wendy, played by Sydney Chandler, a terminally ill child whose consciousness had been transferred into a synthetic adult body, and the other "Lost Boys" made the same way. It ended with the hybrids out of their enclosure and Wendy announcing, without much doubt in her voice, that they were now in charge. Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Babou Ceesay and Samuel Blenkin all survived to return.
Who is joining for season two?
Peter Dinklage was announced in the spring in what FX is calling a mystery role, understood to be a senior corporate figure. In July the production added three more: Tracey Ullman, Sam Spruell, who worked with Hawley on the fifth season of Fargo, and Jerome Flynn, best known as Bronn in Game of Thrones. None of their characters has been named. Filming has moved from Thailand, where the first season was shot, to Pinewood Studios outside London, which suggests a season built more around interiors and sets than the island jungle.
Why does the show work?
Because Hawley treated the Xenomorph as one monster among several and the humans as the real subject. The first season's most disturbing material was corporate: what a company would do with a child's mind if it owned the body it lived in. It is the closest anything in the franchise has come to the tone of the 1979 film, which was a story about a crew being expendable long before it was a story about a creature. Hawley has said the arc could run three to five seasons, and he has signed a new deal with FX that suggests the network agrees.
What else is happening in the franchise?
Predator: Badlands, Dan Trachtenberg's film with Elle Fanning and a Yautja protagonist, completed its run and reached Disney+ in February with the strongest reviews the series has had. A sequel is talked about but not confirmed. Alien: Romulus 2 has a finished script from Fede Álvarez, who is moving to a producing role; a director has not been officially named. Hawley has said plainly that there will be no Predator crossover in Alien: Earth, which is the right call.
When does season two arrive?
FX has not said. With filming under way now, early 2027 is the sensible expectation, but treat it as a guess until there is a date.
Halidom's Alien & Predator editions run from Big Chap to Badlands.