How did the Weyland-Yutani corporation know to send the crew of the Nostromo to look for a xenomorph sample in Alien? The simple answer is “The Company” already knew a decent amount about the xenomorphs, which explains why Ash (Ian Holm) and others were so obsessed with the monster in the first film, and even as recently as the midquel Alien: Romulus. While the events of the prequel film Prometheus muddied the waters as to where the famous face huggers and chest bursters originated, everyone can agree that the gas giant Calpamos had a few different moons, and these monsters were found there, even if they didn’t come from those moons.
Now, the new prequel series Alien: Earth will apparently adhere to that exact continuity very closely. After speculation that the Noah Hawley-produced Alien show would change the xenomorph timeline, one line from a new teaser suggests the opposite. The aliens in Alien: Earth will come from the same place they always have. According to a new sizzle reel presented at Disney’s D23 convention in Brazil, the xenomorphs in Alien: Earth will be found on an alien moon.
In the new footage, a voice says, “This ship collected specimens from a faraway moon,” which can only mean one of two relevant moons in existing Alien canon. First, you’ve got Acheron (LV-426), which is where the Nostromo finds the alien in the first movie, and where the Hadley’s Hope colony is established in Aliens. There’s also LV-223, a neighboring moon, which is where the entirety of Prometheus takes place.
Alien: Earth doesn’t have to get too specific about which of these moons the xenomorphs came from for the show to make sense. What’s clearly being established is that the xenomorphs on Earth aren’t from Earth, nor have they been lurking around Earth in prehistoric times. Alien: Earth isn’t creating a goofy retcon similar to how the Alien vs. Predator movies played out in the early aughts.
Hopefully, this latest revelation indicates that Alien: Earth will be smartly sidestepping most of this complicated timeline’s canon. The show takes place in the 2090s, which is several decades before the first film. Instead, it’s happening around the same time as Prometheus; specimens from a faraway moon have been brought to Earth in this show, while Peter Weyland is getting ready to leave on his own expedition to the same (or neighboring) moon.
Rather than having these plots bump into each other, Alien: Earth seems to be treating them as two spaceships passing in the night. That’s a smart approach that will avoid complicated canon questions. For the show to succeed, it will need to make us worried about chest bursters, not have us bust out a calculator to figure out how old they are.
