The timeline of the Alien franchise has been explored out of chronological order, so it could do with being cleared up. The Alien franchise kicked off in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s titular original movie, which saw the crew of the space-faring mining vessel Nostromo go toe-to-toe with an enigmatic alien creature – which has come to be known as the Xenomorph. Subsequent movies, TV shows, and digital series have expanded the franchise perfectly, culminating in FX’s new Alien: Earth series, that brings the Xenomorph to Earth for the first time ever.
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So far, seven feature films are canon to the Alien franchise’s timeline, with 2004’s Alien vs. Predator and its 2007 sequel, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, being excluded. Additionally, while Alien: Earth is the first and currently only honest-to-goodness TV series in the Alien franchise, many consider the Alien: Isolation digital series – based on the video game of the same name – to also be canon, though this hasn’t been given official confirmation. It’s easy to put these nine projects into chronological order, and the franchise’s full timeline starts to make more sense when we do.
9) Prometheus Takes Place in 2093
Despite being one of the more recent additions to the Alien franchise, having released in June 2012, Prometheus actually takes place the earliest in the timeline. Prometheus opens in 2089, when Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) find the Engineers’ star map. We then skip to 2093, when the Prometheus vessel lands on LV-223 and its crew come face-to-face with the Engineers and uncover their genocidal plot against humanity. Throughout their adventure, the android David (Michael Fassbender) becomes obsessed with the black liquid and its potential to alter genetics and biology, kick-starting the evolution of the Xenomorph.
Prometheus was developed by original Alien creator Ridley Scott as the first in a new prequel trilogy exploring the origins of the Xenomorphs. The 2012 movie was followed by Alien: Covenant, but Scott has since suggested this trilogy will not be completed, even though we only needed one more story to bridge the gap between Covenant and 1979’s original Alien movie. Prometheus was an intriguing addition to the Alien franchise, more grounded and character-focused than its predecessors, and more relatable, perhaps because of its proximity to the real-world’s current time.
8) Alien: Covenant Takes Place in 2104
Nine years after the events of Prometheus, May 2017’s Alien: Covenant sees the crew of the titular colony ship Covenant get woken up early by an accident while en route to its new home of Origae-6. While awake, the crew see a possibly habitable world where they find Prometheus’ David and the product of his experiments, neomorphs – early forms of the Xenomorph. The android Walter (Fassbender) realizes David’s nefarious intentions, which includes elevating his experiments to introduce the Xenomorph form we are familiar with. Covenant didn’t quite bridge the gap between the prequels and Alien, but developed the story well.
7) Alien: Earth Takes Place in 2120
It’s a shame that Alien: Covenant’s cliffhanger ending hasn’t yet been addressed, but 2025’s Alien: Earth series has introduced exciting new developments to the franchise. Set 16 years after Covenant and two years before Alien, Alien: Earth features a Xenomorph much similar to the one we know. Alien: Earth has revealed that, some point after Covenant, Weyland-Yutani gained an interest in the Xenomorph and other alien specimens. Weyland-Yutani wanted to bring the Xenomorph to Earth, but the specimens have fallen under the control of the Prodigy Corporation, somewhat explaining Weyland-Yutani’s desire for the creature in the original Alien movie.
6) Alien Takes Place in 2122
1979’s Alien movie was very far ahead of its time, set in 2122, which is now only two years after the events of Alien: Earth. Alien saw the crew of the Weyland-Yutani mining vessel Nostromo woken up from stasis when the ship detects a transmission from the planet LV-426. Tasked with investigating by Weyland-Yutani, the crew find alien eggs, leading to Kane (John Hurt) being attacked by a facehugger and birthing a Xenomorph. The creature picks off the crew one-by-one before Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) manages to throw it out into space and destroy the ship.
5) Alien: Isolation Takes Place in 2137
While not officially confirmed to be canon to the Alien timeline, many consider Alien: Isolation – The Digital Series to be connected. The 2019 animated series, set 15 years after Alien, is based on the 2014 video game of the same name. The series follows Amanda Ripley (Andrea Deck), the daughter of Ellen Ripley, who travels to an abandoned space station with a Weyland-Yutani team to investigate her mother’s disappearance and in search of the Nostromo’s flight recorder. She comes to blows with hostile humans, corrupted androids, and, of course, a Xenomorph, so has an important place in the Alien timeline.
4) Alien: Romulus Takes Place in 2142
The most recent feature film in the Alien franchise released in August 2024, but was set 20 years after the original Alien movie, and 37 years before Aliens. Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus followed Rain (Cailee Spaeny), her surrogate android brother Andy (David Jonsson), and their friends on a mission to find cryostats equipment from an abandoned Weyland-Yutani space station, allowing them to make the nine-year trip to Yvaga III. Unfortunately for them, Weyland-Yutani had been experimenting the facehuggers and Xenomorphs on the Romulus and Remus space stations, so these creatures were unleashed upon the group’s arrival.
Despite being mostly standalone, Alien: Romulus paid homage to many previous instalments in the Alien franchise. The likeness of Ian Holm was used to portray the dismantled android Rook, who had the same form as Ash from the original Alien movie, Weyland-Yutani’s obsession with the Xenomorphs was developed, and the Nostromo was even mentioned. Additionally, Alien: Romulus saw Kay (Isabela Merced) give birth to a genetically-altered human-alien creature – transformed by the mysterious black liquid from Prometheus, now named Prometheus Fire, 239 years before Alien Resurrection included this development.
3) Aliens Takes Place in 2179
37 years after Alien: Romulus and 57 years after Alien, Ellen Ripley is found and recovered in James Cameron’s Aliens from 1986. During those 57 years, LV-426 had become home to a human colony, much to the dismay of Ripley, yet, predictably, the colony had come under attack from Xenomorphs. Ripley joins a crew of Colonial Marines and the android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) aboard the Sulaco to travel to LV-426 and investigate. They find a whole host of Xenomorphs and facehuggers, and even the alien Queen, all killed by Ripley, Bishop, Hicks (Michael Biehn), and young Newt (Carrie Henn).
2) Alien 3 Takes Place in 2179
Set immediately after the end of Aliens, 1992’s Alien 3 quickly killed off Hicks and Newt and crashed Ripley and the damaged android Bishop on Fiorina “Fury” 161, a prison planet. While director David Fincher has regularly renounced the movie, Alien 3 marked some interesting developments in the franchise, including exploring the death of Ellen Ripley. She sacrificed herself to stop Weyland-Yutani from collecting the alien Queen embryo that had been gestating inside her. With the alien Queen and Ripley dead, it seemed this could have been a satisfying ending to the Alien timeline.
1) Alien Resurrection Takes Place in 2381
202 years after the events of Aliens and Alien 3, 1997’s Alien Resurrection saw military scientists aboard the USM Auriga create a clone of Ellen Ripley with the alien Queen embryo inside her. The clone, designated Ripley 8, had enhanced traits because of some of the Xenomorph DNA being infused into her, which also gives her more empathy and a psychic link with the creatures. The Auriga also housed many Xenomorphs that were being studied, but they escape captivity to come under fire by Ripley 8 and a group of mercenaries.
Alien Resurrection introduced a human-alien hybrid years before Alien: Romulus debuted a sleeker version. After being cloned with Ripley’s DNA, the grown alien Queen had a human uterus which birthed this hybrid, but it and the Auriga as a whole were brought down by Ripley, with the ship crashing into Earth and exploding. The next steps of Ripley 8 and the synthetic Call (Winona Ryder) were left unclear, and neither have been seen or mentioned since, with all subsequent movies and shows in the Alien franchise taking place years before Alien Resurrection.
What are your favorite projects in the Alien franchise? Let us know in the comments!
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
