With the prevalence of streaming services, some of the biggest sci-fi franchises in Hollywood have been able to expand beyond the film medium, fleshing out their respective universes with stories the movies don’t have time to tell. For example, there are several Star Wars and Star Trek TV shows for fans to binge, introducing a bevy of new characters and storylines for audiences to fall in love with. Another legendary sci-fi franchise, one that’s been around for nearly 50 years, is looking to get in on the fun with its own TV series. And so far, it’s proven to be a sizable draw.
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The franchise in question is Alien, and the TV show Alien: Earth is dominating the Disney+ charts. On FlixPatrol, which measures the popularity of titles on streaming services, Alien: Earth is the No. 1 TV series on Disney+ by a wide margin, easily surpassing the likes of Iron Man and His Awesome Friends, Grey’s Anatomy, and Modern Family. On the Disney+ app, Alien: Earth leads the Top 10 chart, beating out Rio.
Created by Noah Hawley, Alien: Earth premiered on FX and Hulu on August 12th. It received widely positive reviews, earning a 96% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. Alien: Earth‘s critical reception continues an encouraging franchise trend, as last year’s film Alien: Romulus also earned strong reviews. Alien: Earth has earned praise for being exceptionally scary and putting its own spin on franchise lore by introducing new creatures.
As Alien fans check out the franchise’s latest offering on Hulu, they can also revisit one of the most iconic titles from its past. James Cameron’s Aliens, arguably the greatest action-horror film of the 1980s, is now available to watch on the streaming service.
The Alien franchise has enjoyed a nice resurgence over the past couple of years. Romulus was a box office hit, grossing $350.9 million against an $80 million production budget. A sequel to that film is in development, and Alien will have a presence in this fall’s Predator: Badlands. Elle Fanning’s character in the film, Thia, is a synthetic created by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg is open to doing more crossovers at some point. It’s nice to see Alien also achieve success on the small screen, and it’ll be interesting to see how Alien: Earth evolves from here. The show is set two years before the events of 1979’s Alien, but Hawley could find an entrypoint for more stories in this universe.
Previously, Hawley put a unique spin on the comic book adaptation with his work on the Marvel TV series Legion, which impressed viewers by taking them inside the troubled mind of David Haller. That set up was a launchpad for a variety of fascinating episodes that experimented with different genres and styles. Now, Hawley is finding similar acclaim with Alien: Earth. Not only has he refreshingly mixed things up by terrorizing viewers with new alien creatures, he may have even solved some continuity problems in the franchise’s convoluted timeline. It’s a shame Hawley never got a chance to realize his planned Star Trek movie, but he’s found a way to leave his mark on genre entertainment in more ways than one.
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