'That element of the show really captured my mind' – forget Xenomorphs, Alien: Earth’s cast say the real story is something even darker

Spoilers ahead for Alien: Earth.

Before Alien: Earth, we knew what to expect from the Alien movie franchise – tight, dark corridors with jets of steam, claustrophobic space ships and a crew who keep making the wrong decisions combined with a creepy Xenomorph who appears from the shadows to take centre stage. And while the latest installment, Alien: Romulus, kept this Alien fan entertained, it was all getting a bit repetitive and stale.

Thanks to Alien: Earth that’s all changed. While being the Alien franchise’s first step into the episodic format, Alien: Earth also manages to achieve the rare trick of keeping enough elements from the classic Alien to make it feel like canon, but at the same time widening its scope enough to make it part of a wider universe that connects to other franchises, like Ridley Scott’s second sci-fi masterpiece, Blade Runner.

And while the Xenomorph is still a central element in Alien: Earth, it gets upstaged regularly by one of the most terrifying new creatures in sci-fi / horror I’ve seen in ages, The Eye, or Eyeball Midge, as T. Ocellus has become affectionately known. This creepy little parasitic cephalopod could easily spawn a whole new franchise of its own, as it scuttles around the floor looking for its next victim to inhabit and control in particularly gruesome form: Attaching its tentacles to its victim’s face, it rips out their eyeball and replaces it with its own, its tentacles borrowing deep into their brain – who could become T. Ocellus' new host has been one of the biggest questions in the series.

I’ve got my eye on you

Dealing with the blood and slime covered aliens is all in a day’s work for actors Jonathan Ajayi and Lily Newmark who play Smee and Nibs, two of the Lost Boys (named after the J.M. Barrie-penned characters from Peter Pan) – human/synth hybrids who have super-powered bodies, but with the minds of children trapped inside them.

Speaking at a screening of the finale episode at the Everyman Theatre in London yesterday, the cast members explained what it was like to work with the practical effects that the showrunner Noah Hawley preferred over replying too strongly on digital effects.

Talking about acting with the Eyeball Midge, Newmark said, “I was filming with my imagination mostly. I had a kind of miniature version of what it would look like in the edit and for the close up shots I played with that in my hands. But it was much bigger in the final form.“

The Xenomorph itself has flitted between being played by a man in a suit, most famously in the original Alien movie to being a puppet and then as CGI in later films. In Alien: Earth an actor in a suit plays the Xenomorph again, so what was it like to be on set with an actual alien?“Oh yeah, the sets were just insane”, says Ajayi. “Cam, who was playing the Xeno, he’s a really tall guy and the suit made him even taller. The practical effects they did for the suit and the Xeno baby were just insane”.

“The practical effects were pretty incredible. It did so much of the work for us – you only need so much imagination when there is blood being squirted in your eye!”

Of monsters and men

While the monster action remains a big part of the draw of Alien: Earth, there’s something even darker lurking under the surface: In the Alien universe, five major corporations control most of the planet and each is struggling to win the battle for AI dominance.

In a way, Alien: Earth tells the story of the same race for AI dominance that we’re seeing play out in the real world today as tech giants like Google, Meta, OpenAI and xAI battle each other to be the first to reach AGI (artificial general intelligence), just without monsters and alien intelligences thrown into the mix.

“That’s so fascinating, it’s that element of the show that really captured my mind” Ajayi says. “How it all merged into the same world. It was just a ride really. Each episode something else is taking centre stage, be it the Eye in one episode vs Nibs in another episode, vs the fly and Tootles. Understanding how all these different life forms intersect.”

When asked what Noah’s intentions for portraying the hybrids on screen, Newmark responded: “Noah didn’t spoon feed us his intentions. It’s a collaborative space where he’s letting everybody involved come up with their own answers. I guess that’s the point of making anything – you’re not supposed to tell anyone what they’re supposed to think or feel when watching or making something. But yes, it’s a very apt time when it gets released, when humanity is very much at its worst.”

But while dangling the tantalizing possibilities of exciting new artificial life forms in front of the audience and making important points about today’s tech companies, ultimately the finale episode of Alien: Earth (read our ending explainer for more) returns to the classic theme of the original Alien movie – what happens when corporate interests run unchecked and humans become just another expandable resource in the relentless pursuit of profit.

Alien: Earth starts with the chilling message delivered by Kirsh (played by Timothy Oliphont), one of the synthetics: "You used to be food, you know. Humanity. Your lives were short. Then your brains grew. You built tools and used them to conquer nature. Built impossible machines. Went to space. You stopped being food. Or, I should say, you told yourself you weren't food anymore."

After watching the gruesome series finale we got to see that humanity is still in the food chain. As a new hybrid life form begins to take over. I’m excited to see where season 2 takes the rise of Wendy and her Lost Boy hybrids, a new type of artificial intelligence – half human, half synthetic – with the world, and a tame Xenomorph, at its feet.

All eight episodes Alien: Earth are now streaming on Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally), two of the best streaming services.

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