Alien: Earth – Xenomorph Redesign and How It Shares the Spotlight

Alien: Earth isn’t your average Alien rehash, and that’s exactly the point. Noah Hawley drops the Xenomorph onto Earth, yes—but he also packs the first two episodes with new factions, hybrids, and creatures that demand attention alongside it.

The show is set two years before Ridley Scott’s original Alien, which basically means we’re watching the setup for disaster. The show dropped its first two episodes on FX and Hulu, it’s clear that Hawley is expanding the universe, and the Xenomorph isn’t the only terrifying force at play.

The Xenomorph Factor

Here’s the thing: the Xenomorph is still central to the horror, but Hawley leans into showing it upfront. No lurking in shadows like in 1979—drool, double-mouth chomps, and shredded victims hit the screen immediately. It’s still terrifying, but the focus is shared with new threats that keep you on edge.

I’ll say it: the design tweaks actually work. Practical effects make it feel solid and nasty. The changes are bold—cockroach brown instead of jet black, flatter teeth that somehow look creepier than fangs, and a ribcage with crab vibes instead of human bones. I love the redesign, though I’ll always miss Giger’s sleek nightmare.

New Beasts, Bigger Nightmares

The Maginot—basically a Weyland-Yutani deathtrap ship—crash-lands on Earth carrying not one but six alien species. One of them, T. Ocellus, looks like an eyeball got drunk and mated with an octopus. That thing nearly hijacks the entire show.

Then there are Prodigy Corporation’s “soldiers”!! Translation: terminally ill kids shoved into billion-dollar robot bodies, named after the Lost Boys from Peter Pan. Imagine a group of robot children with the minds of kids, sent to fight monsters that literally eat people’s faces!

Themes Of The Show

The show digs into body horror, the nightmare of losing control over your own body (pregnancy, implants, hybrids, ...pick your poison), and the way corporations treat workers like disposable meat. It’s blunt and uncomfortable. And it feels way too real in 2025!!

Visually, Hawley keeps ties to the original Alien. The Maginot mirrors the Nostromo, so fans get that nostalgia punch.

My Take...

You tune in for the Xenomorph, but you stay for spaceship crashes into skyscrapers, creepy hybrid kids, and aliens that look like biology experiments gone wrong!

My take? The Xenomorph is still a cornerstone of the story. But in these first two episodes, Hawley’s universe is so full of other terrors that it shares the spotlight, sometimes stealing the thunder from our favorite monster. It’s an expansion, not a demotion and if anything, it sets the stage for even bigger Xenomorph moments to come!