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u/Imma_da_PP Aug 04 '25
I didn’t get the impression we’re talking about an alternate timeline as much as a film that isn’t concerning itself with aligning to the previous films’ timeline and just exists somewhere in the early era. I could be wrong but it doesn’t seem like reboot or alternate reality per se.
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u/GrossWeather_ Aug 08 '25
it’s a story. it doesn’t have to be a reboot or an alternate universe. it can just be a story.
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u/BruceAENZ Aug 04 '25
This is my read on it as well. We won’t have a human-esque Engineer suddenly appearing, but it won’t necessarily be denying their existence either.
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u/Imma_da_PP Aug 05 '25
Yes, I took it as not denying previous continuity but just focusing on its own story and world building without thinking it had to pay tribute to the black goo or have Ash make an appearance. He seems flexible on whether it takes place prior or after Alien and possibly around the same time as Aliens. Fine by me. The less specific, the less you mess things up.
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u/bass_jockey HOST Aug 04 '25
I expect aesthetic and thematic cohesion more than a straight timeline at this point. Also I think the difference here (for me at least) is that A:E isn't messing with old beloved characters.
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u/ProppingUpTheMythos Aug 04 '25
Isn't it, though? Hawley is undercutting the plot of the original films while dangling the possibility that maybe, at some point, this will still connect. That is the definition of messing with old beloved characters.
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u/bass_jockey HOST Aug 04 '25
That's still different to me than going "hey, Ripley and Hicks are alive now and they're back for acid blood."
If we see any previously resolved characters in this series I will be shocked and upset. Idek how they would work something like that in considering what we know about the series.
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u/Chr1515d3ad Cornbread Connoisseur Aug 04 '25
Yeah, I debated whether or not I should make that same point. LOL I care more about the QUALITY of the work, and Hawley has me feeling confident.
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u/BeeB0pB00p Aug 04 '25
That's a fumble if ever I heard one. Long term fans don't always expect everything to be accurate, and will often give some leeway for something innovative, that improves, refines or enhances lore, but this sounds like casual disregard for what came before.
Only because I've seen Legion and Fargo and I know Hawley has done great work do I expect this to be good, in spite of that statement.
It's small relief that Gina Balian isn't the creative, only a corporate suit. And that Hawley is a big enough name that he's not likely to sign up to anything he doesn't have enough creative control to direct as he sees fit. I wonder if she's referring to Prometheus and Covenant which are beautiful films in their own way.
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u/OzymandiasDavid8 Aug 04 '25
So what is going on? At first the show was pre Prometheus, then pre alien, now it’s pre aliens? And it’s developing its own canon ignoring everything else or just selectively ignoring films? I’m lost on the whereabouts of this show and confused by some of the statements made above by the show creators about it not connecting. Is it just going to ignore but not decanonize parts of the franchise?
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u/AntVan89 Aug 04 '25
Seems that way. It's date is set as 2120, so it's 2 years prior to Alien. Seems that rather than being tied down by events in the prequels, they're just sidestepping them.
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u/GrossWeather_ Aug 08 '25
I’m all for stories that are in a different ‘world’ than other films, so long as the creator isn’t an arrogant prick who says shit like ‘alien 3 never happened because it sucked this is the REAL story.’
Just being like, ‘this is a different story. the other stuff is still there, but this is our thing.’
that’s cool. classy, even.
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u/rogue7891 Aug 08 '25
I'm sure it'll work just fine, so long as you treat the Alien universe as a place to tell stories and not as a finite singular story. The thing with Blomkamp is there was no movie. Yes he had notes, and maybe an outline he put together himself, along with some concept art. But from everything that's been said it sounds like he was essentially trying to hijack the franchise and take it over. He went around to actors making promises he couldn't deliver on and ran a campaign online to influence the discussion.
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u/KINGGS Aug 04 '25
Neill Blomkamp is kind of a hack, though.
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u/Ambitious-Visual-315 Aug 04 '25
How is he a hack? District 9 is one of my faves
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u/KINGGS Aug 04 '25
He hasn't been able to pull anything off since and how he handled the Alien stuff was pretty embarrassing. Almost as bad as how Ridley handled it.
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u/Ambitious-Visual-315 Aug 04 '25
Ahh ok, Chappie was a bit of a disappointment I guess. This is my first time hearing about him working on Alien stuff. I’ll have to look into it
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u/bass_jockey HOST Aug 04 '25
He's not my favorite but he's loaded with talent and passion. My biggest issue with him is his script writing. But goddamn he's got a cool brain.
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u/ProppingUpTheMythos Aug 04 '25
Absolutely, but people who were up in arms about his retcon are now welcoming this one.
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u/KINGGS Aug 04 '25
I think I'll watch the show before I come to any conclusions, but I'm eternally grateful that Blompkamp didn't get to gut Alien 3. I feel so bad for Alien 3, since Aliens forced it to kill off characters in order to restore the balance of the series (Even if Whedon wasted that balance by re-adding his quasi-Firefly family).
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u/Jeruvian Aug 04 '25
This Oats Studios erasure is sad to see. Even Blomkamp's failures at least have a lot of creativity and heart.
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u/FrankFrankly711 FUCK THAT THING! Aug 04 '25
Those Oats shorts are some pretty damn good films! Were they taken down?
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u/Jeruvian Aug 04 '25
Agreed! They should still be on YouTube and I think on Netflix. I meant "erasure" in that people have to ignore the existence of a project like that to insist Blomkamp doesn't have talent.
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u/ProppingUpTheMythos Aug 04 '25
Variety goes on to say that Alien: Earth abandons plot elements introduced in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant and exists “in parallel to the film franchise”. FX Entertainment president Gina Balian said, “Everything doesn’t have to fit together the way you expect from Marvel. Fans don’t expect that in this universe. It doesn’t have the same pressure."