The Alien franchise has struggled to build consistent success in the 21st century, but its best installment in almost four decades offers hope for the future. Since Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) won over movie fans and cemented itself among history’s greatest works of science fiction, the intellectual property has faced its fair share of ups and downs. James Cameron’s sequel, Aliens (1986), superbly continued the story of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the lethal xenomorphs, though subsequent Alien prequels and sequels have failed to reach the same heights. The franchise’s most recent movie, Alien: Romulus (2024), injected new life into the declining IP, now in its Disney era. However, a newer and even better installment might be Alien‘s most impressive achievement.
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Alien: Earth is easily the franchise’s best project since Aliens. Set two years before the events of Alien, the show centers on a Weyland-Yutani space vessel crash-landing on Earth with multiple extraterrestrial creatures on board — including a xenomorph. Praised for its detailed expansion of the universe and riveting action sequences, the first-ever Alien TV series has thrilled critics and general audiences. Yet, over a month after its Season 1 finale aired, Alien: Earth has still not received a Season 2 renewal from Disney. This is a major concern for the show and the franchise as a whole, as Alien risks losing momentum if Alien: Earth Season 2 does not get the green light soon.
Alien: Earth Needs a Second Season (and Soon)
Alien: Earth Season 1 is an excellent new chapter in the Alien franchise, and the show desperately needs a second season. Apart from introducing fascinating new life forms like the horrifying eye monster and parasitic blood bugs, Alien: Earth incorporates human, cyborg, and human-synthetic hybrid characters for the first time in the universe. From the determined Weyland-Yutani security officer Kumi Morrow (Babou Ceesay) to the remarkable hybrid Wendy (Sydney Chandler), Alien: Earth‘s wide array of fleshed-out characters wonderfully distinguishes the show from other Alien properties. Alien: Earth also explores a future society dominated by mega-corporations with more depth than ever before. Themes about capitalism, power, and greed are at the forefront of Alien: Earth‘s narrative, setting the stage for a compelling continuation.
As Weyland-Yutani’s alien species stir up trouble while in the clutches of Prodigy Corporation and its brazen CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), the two sides clash, and chaos erupts. At the end of Alien: Earth‘s Season 1 finale, Wendy and the other Prodigy hybrids, known as the Lost Boys, break out of the facility and have xenomorphs on their side as they gain control over their captors. The cliffhanger ending doesn’t reveal what happens once Weyland-Yutani’s forces arrive, meaning Season 2 is desperately needed to resume the story.
Alien: Earth‘s unanswered questions and open-ended plot points can’t wait too long to be addressed by the show, as viewers might lose interest the longer the wait drags on. Season 2’s up-in-the-air status is rendered all the more discouraging by the show’s enormous potential. But, creator Noah Hawley said that he has a “longer arc” mapped out beyond Alien: Earth Season 1 and has expressed his optimism for a second season.
“I think we’ve launched incredibly well,” Hawley told The Hollywood Reporter back in September. “I’m certainly hoping that it’s not a long nail-biter of ‘Can we do this again?’ My hope is certainly in the next couple of months to get some kind of sign from them as to whether I should get another job or get back to work.”
It seems no one has any answers regarding Alien: Earth Season 2, and Disney can’t afford to tread water much longer.
The Alien Franchise Could Lose Its Best Chance at Long-Term Success
If Disney doesn’t greenlight Alien: Earth Season 2 soon, the Alien franchise could waste its biggest success in recent memory. Most of the time, major franchises renew TV shows while they’re airing or soon after. Disney wasted no time in laying out the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multi-season plan for Daredevil: Born Again. Meanwhile, HBO announced House of the Dragon Seasons 3 and 4 almost immediately after the Season 2 finale was released. The fact that Alien: Earth has gone over a month without any good news raises doubts about a second season.
Of course, Alien: Earth Season 2 might still happen, but even if it does, two or three years could pass before audiences see the new episodes. Disney’s reluctance to confirm Alien: Earth‘s second season is incredibly frustrating, as the franchise is now jeopardizing its most promising recent installment. Fans don’t want more unfinished Alien stories with no clear roadmap for the universe’s future. Disney, which has owned the rights to Alien since 2019, needs to decide the fate of Alien: Earth as soon as possible to avoid squandering the show’s outstanding revitalization of the franchise.
All episodes of Alien: Earth are available to stream on Hulu.
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