Alien: Earth Final Trailer: Humanity’s Quest for Immortality Turns Deadly

FX and Hulu’s new prequel series Alien: Earth finally has a release date, with the service sharing one last trailer and full series synopsis of the show on May 2, 2024. Set to debut on August 12, 2025, on Hulu and FX, Alien: Earth is shaping up to be a thoughtful yet bone-chilling experience from what the trailers and synopsis are showing. The new trailer weaves quiet, almost contemplative moments with standard sci-fi horror aesthetics: shadowy alien ships floating in the void of space, dead bodies littering a darkened hallway, blood-soaked humans sprinting for their lives, and on the horizon, a more familiar figure—the unmistakable profile of a xenomorph, stalking in the dark.

FX and Hulu are keeping true to Hawley’s stated vision: the tone and mythology of Alien: Earth will be far closer in spirit to Ridley Scott’s original Alien (1979) than the prequels and pre-prequels that followed, including the 2012 film Prometheus or the 2017 follow-up Alien: Covenant.

Premise

Alien: Earth is set in 2120, two years before the events of the first film. While the world is still recognizable as the one we know today, humanity is firmly under the thumb of powerful corporate entities that will stop at nothing to get the most precious resource of all: life, or at least immortality.

Corporate Dominance and the Age of the Hybrids

In the year 2120, the Earth is no longer run by governments and political leaders. Instead, five mega-corporations control the planet: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. This is the Corporate Era, where human and machine are indistinguishable from one another. Cyborgs, enhanced with artificial body parts, work side-by-side with synthetics—humanoid robots with advanced artificial intelligence. But this balance is about to be irrevocably tipped by the actions of the young, prodigious Founder and CEO of the Prodigy Corporation: the hybrid, a humanoid robot with an actual human mind.

The first of these synthetic humans to be fully assembled is “Wendy,” a prototype played by Sydney Chandler. As described in her casting, Wendy has “the body of an adult and the consciousness of a child.”

The series picks up with Prodigy City on a quiet day. That is, until the city is rocked by the sudden crash of a Weyland-Yutani spaceship. In the alien ship, Wendy and the other hybrids discover dangerous alien organisms—deadlier than humanity has ever known. At once, the lives of Wendy, her hybrid companions, and humanity’s future are changed forever.

Chandler is joined by a cast of similarly intriguing, layered characters including Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, a synthetic trainer and Wendy’s mentor; Alex Lawther as CJ, a soldier; Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, an ambitious CEO; Essie Davis as Dame Silvia; Adarsh Gourav as Slightly; Kit Young as Tootles; David Rysdahl as Arthur; Babou Ceesay as Morrow; Jonathan Ajayi as Smee; Erana James as Curly; Lily Newmark as Nibs; Diem Camille as Siberian; and Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins.

Final Trailer for Alien: Earth

The full trailer followed up on their initial teaser that was released back in January, dropped exclusively during the NFL’s AFC Championship game. In the short teaser, only 18 seconds long, the entire clip is shot from the point of view of a xenomorph on a spaceship. The xenomorph trots down a dark hallway of a spacecraft, barreling toward the Earth. The footage is disorienting, completely without context, but it’s exactly what it sounds like from the beginning of Alien.

The next trailer they released last month was far more detailed in its storytelling. The first 20 seconds of the trailer match the original teaser from January, but then it moves on to the first moments of Wendy’s life. We’re introduced to her as a part of the human team in the year 2120 on Neverland Research Island. She’s presented in her almost childlike innocence, surrounded by her synthetic teacher, Kirsh, and members of the research staff.

The alien space shuttle that crashed into the island can be heard in the distance. In the backstory released with the trailer, Wendy has volunteered to investigate the mysterious cargo that has been recovered and transported back to the lab for study. But instead of an opportunity for research and experimentation, she finds carnage. In the wreckage of the crashed ship are five alien life forms, all dead but still an immediate danger. In true Alien fashion, the creatures are rushed back into the lab for study.

Humanity’s hubris collides with an apex predator of unimaginable danger. That’s exactly the sort of setup that was going to result in tragedy, and the final trailer only confirms it. In just over a minute, the series trailer deftly weaves quiet, almost thoughtful moments with standard sci-fi horror. Shadowy alien ships float through the nothingness of space; dead bodies litter a darkened hallway; blood-soaked humans sprint for their lives; and on the horizon, a more familiar figure—the unmistakable profile of a xenomorph, stalking in the dark. As the trailer fades out, it’s no secret that Alien: Earth is less spectacle than steady dread, all the more horrifying for Hawley’s focus on atmosphere and tone.

Series Premiere

Alien: Earth has a lot of expectations on its shoulders, and it’s been slowly building to this August release for a while. While the story teased in the first trailer is straight from the Alien canon that many fans know and love, it’s remained mysterious as to where this prequel series will go.

With a set premiere date of August 12, 2025, streaming on Hulu and FX, Alien: Earth promises to be a welcome return to the franchise’s original tenor. How long Wendy’s innocence will last against the horrors to come—and how long humanity will last against its oubris—remains to be seen.