A new Alien: Earth trailer has finally shown a xenomorph on earth — and there’s a quite horrible shot of a sheep with a serious eye problem.
The upcoming FX show revolves around the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot, which crash-lands on earth. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and a group of tactical soldiers make a “fateful discovery” that puts them face-to-face with the xenomorph fans know well, but also a number of other alien species, too.
FX’s Alien: Earth. OFFICIAL TRAILER 2: GREENER WORLD. Prepare. Before it’s too late. Premieres August 12. pic.twitter.com/8KfO4Yr3N0
— 20th Century Studios Canada (@20thCenturyCA) July 17, 2025
Let’s start with the final shot in the new trailer, below, which reveals Alien: Earth’s xenomorph quietly contemplating its fate from within what may be a crater formed by the crashed ship. This is not the kind of place we’re used to seeing the Alien franchise’s famous xenomorphs. Across the mainline films, we mostly see xenomorphs ripping humans (and the odd synthetic) to shreds aboard spaceships. Alien: Earth, however, asks the question: what if a xenomorph came to earth? I suspect things won’t go well.
The xenomorph is but one of five alien monsters found aboard the Maginot. We’ve seen glimpses of these in previous trailers, including the bizarre plant-like alien we see again in this new promo. But the focus this time is on a creepy eyeball-loving monstrosity that appears to be having its way with a poor sheep. The sheep is hooked up to what looks like a monitoring device, so perhaps it was the subject of some nefarious study to determine the effect this new alien has on its victims.
We actually see a very brief shot of this alien later in the trailer, where a woman is desperately trying to fend it off. It looks like the alien is trying to get into the woman’s eye, which, well, please no.
Overall, it’s a super cool trailer for Alien: Earth, which is looking more impressive with each new clip. How this all ends up tying into the events of the first Alien movie and evil mega corp Weyland Yutani’s plans for the xenomorph is anyone’s guess.
Speaking of Weyland Yutani, at this point in the Alien timeline (Alien: Earth is set in 2120, well after Prometheus and just two years before Alien and the unfortunate events that befell the crew of the Nostromo), Earth is governed by five corporations: Weyland-Yutani, Prodigy (they own this city, it seems), Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. Cyborgs and synthetics coexist with humans, but then the boss of Prodigy invents hybrids (humanoid robots with human consciousness). Wendy is the first hybrid prototype, and is part of the established push for immortality that is a running theme in the Alien franchise.
Alien: Earth cast:
- Sydney Chandler (Wendy)
- Timothy Olyphant (Kirsh),
- Alex Lawther (Hermit)
- Samuel Blenkin (Boy Kavalier)
- Babou Ceesay (Morrow)
- Adrian Edmondson (Atom Eins)
- David Rysdahl (Arthur Sylvia)
- Essie Davis (Dame Sylvia)
- Lily Newmark (Nibs)
- Erana James (Curly)
- Adarsh Gourav (Slightly)
- Jonathan Ajayi (Smee)
- Kit Young (Tootles)
- Diêm Camille (Siberian)
- Moe Bar-El (Rashidi)
- Sandra Yi Sencindiver (Yutani)
Alien: Earth premieres its first two episodes on August 12 on Hulu at 8pm ET, and on FX and Disney+ at 8pm PT / ET (August 13 in the UK and internationally on Disney+). New episodes of the eight-episode season debut each following Tuesday.
In January last year, showrunner Noah Hawley explained why he is not using the backstory provided in Prometheus for Alien: Earth, saying he likes the “retro-futurism” of the original films. Hawley said he spoke to Alien chief Ridley Scott about “many, many elements” of the Alien series, including its ties to the prequels, but ultimately decided to cut loose and move away from the bioweapon backstory because he preferred the lore of the original films.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
