Alien Earth is a separate continuity that's ok

ninXeno426
MemberPraetorianAugust 26, 2025So there's been somewhat of a trend in recent years where people behind beloved franchises haven't always taken fan interests into consideration. Whether it's the "fans don't matter" approach of The Last Jedi. The brutal murder of Joel, the main character of The Last of Us in the sequel's opening hours. Replacing Michael Myers as the main killer in Halloween Ends. Killing John Connor off in the opening minutes of Terminator Dark Fate and replacing Skynet with Legion, a new AI that does the same exact thing. And of course certain controversial decisions made by Prometheus and Alien Covenant, though they definitely were not the first divisive decisions made in this franchise.
Such controversial decisions are frequently back tracked though not always. Alien Covenant felt as if it tried to balance what people liked about Prometheus and giving fans what they want "fucking Aliens" as Scott so bluntly put it. Rise of Skywalker attempted to back track every controversial decision made by The Last Jedi. Did you know SAW X exists because fans rejected Spiral: From the book of Saw, the Jigsaw less soft reboot? And yet again Alien Romulus treads safe and fairly familiar ground after the polarizing prequels.
Trying to keep fans happy is a difficult task. Can't please everyone.
As I said above Alien is already prone to controversial decisions. Killing Hicks and Newt in the opening moments of Alien 3. Ripley dying in Alien 3. Even Alien 3 ignoring the Earth War trilogy comic series is often brought up as a disappointment. Don't know why anyone would think Hollywood would take comics seriously though. Bringing back Ripley as a human xenomorph hybrid in Alien Resurrection. Just about every decision regarding the Engineers and possible xenomorph origins in Prometheus. David being the "creator" of the xenomorphs in Covenant, he didn't but many take Covenant at face value. Hell even James Cameron's hive complete with a Queen is a controversial decision. So if Alien Earth isn't intimately connected to anything then that is fine. Par for the course, Earth seems to be yet again dividing fan opinions. On one hand Alien Earth is being hailed as the best Alien anything in decades, similar to what was said of Romulus last year. On the other hand being derided for just another bad Alien update. Business as usual with Alien. Whether it's arrogant self indulgence or consciousness of fans (I'm going with the former) it's for the best Alien Earth exists separate. After all I'm certain there's a huge portion of the fanbase that's happy he's not tying into the Scott's controversial prequels. Scott is a producer after all, he doesn't seem to mind. Interesting enough he hasn't said anything to praise Earth like he did Romulus and has seemingly been absent from anything Earth related so who knows maybe he thinks it's rubbish. As of now it seems Alien will separate into two continuities. Film continuity.
Prometheus (2093)
Alien Covenant (2104)
Alien (2122)
Alien Romulus (2142)
Aliens (2179)
Alien 3 (2179)
Alien Resurrection (2381)
I should note lots of Disney era Alien does ignore Alien 3 and Resurrection. No comics, novels, or games have really acknowledged them. To be fair Resurrection takes place so far down the timeline its easy to ignore.
Alien Earth is 2120. No prior stories meaning Prometheus and Covenant didn't happen. Noah Hawley has hinted at building up to Alien and borrows some Aesthetics from Aliens as well. Whether he chooses to lead to the movies is really up to him. A producer behind Alien Earth stated that that Alien fans don't expect things to be connected like Marvel. While i thought that was a ridiculous thing to say, due to the divided opinions on the franchise even critically they're not wrong. Earth can exist on its own. Fans can use head canon theories to make it fit with the existing time line. It's been done before. You'll find fans that say The Earth War Trilogy, William Gibson's Alien 3, Vincent Ward's Wooden Planet, or Aliens Colonial Marines are their Alien 3. The AVP's are their preferred prequels. Alien Isolation their preferred Alien sequel. We even have fans that desire Blade Runner to be connected though they aren't. Alien canon has never been as strict as Star Wars or even Star Trek and that's ok. It's amazing that it's easy enough to follow. It could be worse. It could be like Terminator which has about 5 or 6 different timelines that just can't coexist. Alien is surprisingly easy to follow...unless you try to connect all books, comics, games and Predator.
That's a different story.
Nothing the God of biomechanics wouldn't let you in heaven for