Alien Movies in Order: Release Order, Chronological Timeline & How to Watch

If you’ve ever thought, “I should marathon the Alien movies”, prepare yourself. You’re not just signing up for chest-bursters and Sigourney Weaver glaring at slimy monsters. You’re entering a timeline so messy that even the Xenomorphs would throw up their claws and walk away!!

Release Order: The “Just Shut Up and Watch” Method

The easiest way to do this is release order. Don’t overthink it. Start with Alien (1979), then crawl forward. You’ll hit the Ripley quadrilogy (the actual good stuff), then slam face-first into the Alien vs. Predator era. Those two films are like the drunk cousins at a family reunion >> nobody invited them, but they showed up anyway and now you have to deal with them!

Here’s the release list:

🟢 Alien (1979)

🟢 Aliens (1986)

🟢 Alien 3 (1992)

🟢 Alien: Resurrection (1997)

🟢 Alien vs. Predator (2004)

🟢 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

🟢 Prometheus (2012)

🟢 Alien: Covenant (2017)

🟢 Alien: Romulus (2024)

🟢 Alien: Earth (2025, TV)

If you’re lazy, this works. But you’ll get tonal whiplash. Alien is a haunted house in space, Aliens is a war movie, Resurrection is just… weird, and the AvP movies feel like fanfiction that somehow got studio money!!

Chronological Order: The “I Hate Myself” Method

If you want to understand the lore (good luck). You’ll need a corkboard, red string, and maybe therapy. Chronologically, the timeline starts with AvP in 2004 and ends 400 years later with Resurrection. The timeline looks neat on paper, but watching it that way is like eating dessert first and then chewing cardboard for dinner!

So, if you go by chronological order, here’s what you’re in for:

🔹 Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Because obviously we needed Predators teaching us about pyramid traps in Antarctica!

🔹 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Small-town America gets wrecked, and honestly, nobody misses it.

🔹 Prometheus (2012)

Scientists poke alien goo like toddlers sticking fingers in slime, and shocker: it goes badly!

🔹 Alien: Covenant (2017)

The android David cosplays as Dr. Frankenstein and invents nightmare biology for fun.

🔹 Alien: Earth (2025)

TV decides to join the chaos, dropping Xenomorphs straight onto Earth because why not! (We’re covering the full season here)

🔹 Alien (1979)

Finally, the claustrophobic masterpiece that started it all.

🔹 Alien: Romulus (2024)

Colonists play “let’s break into a shady Weyland-Yutani station” and regret it immediately!!

🔹 Aliens (1986)

Ripley grabs a flamethrower and a mech-suit and goes full war mode. Chef’s kiss.

🔹 Alien 3 (1992)

Ripley crash-lands in a prison and the writers crash-landed the script.

🔹 Alien: Resurrection (1997)

200 years later, Ripley gets cloned with alien DNA and the franchise officially jumps the facehugger.

Canon Chaos: Engineers, Androids, and Studio Retcons

Let’s talk about canon. The AvP films? Half the fandom screams “non-canon”, the other half shrugs and says, “whatever, Predator is cool”. Ridley Scott basically nuked those movies with Prometheus, claiming Xenomorphs didn’t exist in 2004. Then Alien: Earth came along in 2025 and whispered, “maybe they did”. Thanks for nothing.

And then there’s David. A creepy android with daddy issues who decided to play God and “cook up” his own batch of Xenomorphs.

Ripley: The Real Queen of Space

Forget the Engineers, forget David, forget Weyland-Yutani’s evil boardroom clowns. The franchise lives and dies on Ellen Ripley. Sigourney Weaver fought lazy writing, cheesy effects, and executives who clearly had no idea what to do after Aliens. Every time she shows up, the movies get better. Every time she’s gone, the movies spiral into chaos!

The Lore Nobody Asked For

Do you want to know about prehistoric aliens who left slime on Earth and inspired Mayan carvings? Too bad, Prometheus is going to shove that down your throat!

Engineers built life, then built a murder-juice called black goo, then threw a cosmic tantrum because humanity turned out annoying. It’s basically the Bible, but with facehuggers!

Where to Watch?!

In the U.S., Hulu’s got the franchise. In the U.K., Disney+ is hoarding it. At least the streaming part is simple!

My Survival Advice

If you’re new: watch in release order, stop at Aliens, and pretend the rest is fanfiction. If you’re hardcore: suffer through the whole thing and brag later like you survived a marathon with acid blood.

The Alien franchise is brilliant and stupid at the same time. It gave us Ripley, the perfect organism (the Xenomorph), and some of the best sci-fi horror ever filmed. It also gave us Resurrection, which deserves to be launched into space!

Would I recommend watching it all? Yes. Will you regret it? Also yes.