The faint screaming of a creature stirring is heard at the end of the latest trailer for FX’s Alien: Earth from Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley, giving more clues to the series’ world-building and terrifying predators set to stalk a ragtag group of tactical soldiers in the year 2120 as they make a fateful discovery.
“We don’t lock them down… it will be too late,” Timothy Olyphant, as Kirsh, warns at one point in the teaser as mysterious predatory life forms imperil a deep space research vessel, USCSS Maginot, after it crash landed on Earth. The biggest threat among them to the research ship’s soldiers, led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler), is Xenomorph, a blood-dripping, sharp-toothed and screeching creature.
The series takes place near the end of the 21st century, before the event’s of Ridley Scott’s 1979 space-horror classic (Scott is an executive producer of the series via his Scott Free company). The Earth is led by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold.
On the planet, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. The game changer comes when the leader of Prodigy Corporation creates hybrids, or humanoid robots with human consciousness, with the first prototype being Wendy.
“If I’m not human, what am I?” Chandler’s character questions during the trailer as she awakens. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, Wendy and fellow hybrids face mysterious predators more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined as the dreaded alien Xenomorph is set to become the Earth’s greatest threat.
FX’s Alien: Earth cast includes Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Essie Davis, Lily Newmark, Erana James, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Kit Young, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El and Sandra Yi Sencindiver.
Alien: Earth is created and executive produced by Noah Hawley. Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Joseph Iberti, Dana Gonzales and Clayton Krueger also serve as executive producers.
The series will premiere on FX and Hulu on Aug. 12.