NOW ENTERTAINMENT Aug. 10 Month 00--16, 00,2025 2023
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Science fiction thriller series “Alien: Earth,” premiering Tuesday, Aug. 12, on FX and Hulu, explores the response to a mysterious ship’s crash landing. Sydney Chandler stars in “Alien: Earth”
Cover Story Enter, chestburster: Invasive creatures make a crash landing in ‘Alien: Earth’ By Sarah Passingham Before the events of the 1979 film “Alien” terrorized the crew of the USCSS Nostromo mid-journey back to Earth, the blue planet was also invaded by threatening life-forms. “Alien: Earth,” the new prequel series premiering on FX and Hulu Tuesday, August 12, explores the response to a mysterious ship’s crash landing into Prodigy City. In the year 2120, the world is reigned over by a handful of corporations that crave constant technological advancement. One of them, Prodigy Corporation, is responsible for the latest leap in human-tech fusion. Cyborgs and synthetics already populate the earth and live among humans, but Prodigy is ready to unleash their prototype hybrids — immortal humanoid robots uploaded
with a real human’s consciousness — into the world when the crash requires a special team to execute a recovery mission. Wendy, portrayed by Sydney Chandler (“Sugar”), is the first hybrid child of Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin, “Mary & George”). The first class of hybrids, nicknamed “The Lost Boys” by Kavalier, was made possible with the contributions of terminally ill children who agreed to donate their consciousness to the cause, a bleak picture of life in Earth’s corporate era. Kavalier’s right-hand man, Atom Eins (Adrian Edmondson, “3 Body Problem”), serves to deliver his boss’ desires, no matter the human cost. “Alien: Earth” also stars Timothy Olyphant (“Justified: City Primeval”) as Wendy’s
synthetic trainer Kirsh and Alex Lawther (“Andor”) and Diem Camille (“The Wheel of Time”) as human soldiers CJ and Siberian. Essie Davis (“The Narrow Road to the Deep North”) stars as Dame Silvia, Wendy’s human mother figure. David Rysdahl (“Fargo”) is Dame’s husband Arthur Silvia, who develops conflicted feelings about his participation in the creation of the hybrids. Portraying the synthetics and cyborgs are Adarsh Gourav (“Guns & Gulaabs”) as Slightly, Kit Young (“Shadow and Bone”) as Tootles, Babou Ceesay (“We Hunt Together”) as Morrow, Jonathan Ajayi (“Vigil”) as Smee, Erana James (“The Wilds”) as Curly and Lily Newmark (“A Gentleman in Moscow”) as Nibs. As a voice-over states in the series’ official trailer, five
life-forms were collected by the crashed ship on its extraterrestrial ventures, and it is unknown how dangerous those creatures are. What is clear is that Kavalier wants them. Wendy steps up to lead the mission on behalf of herself and Kavalier’s synthetics, saying, “We can do it. We’re fast. We’re strong. We don’t break.” “Alien: Earth” comes from showrunner Noah Hawley, who also helmed the TV adaptation and continuation of the 1996 Coen brothers film, “Fargo.” Hawley spoke to Vanity Fair about working on the series in the midst of a global debate over the ethics of artificial intelligence, saying, “in the last 18 months, it’s become the issue of the moment. I think we’re all trying to figure it out: Can you trust it? Can you talk to it? Why is it lying to me?”