After two decades of clumsy crossovers and fumbling retreads, fans of 20th Century Fox’s Alien and Predator franchises are finally enjoying something of a golden age. Both beloved horror sci-fi franchises — one born in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s Alien, the other in 1987 with John McTiernan’s Predator — have been given a new lease on life in the 2020s with the standouts Prey (2022), Alien: Romulus (2024), and this year’s Predator: Killer of Killers.

However, those who lament our current age of IP cash grabs might be surprised to learn that Disney, who acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, is driving this renaissance. And now, FX’s new show Alien: Earth is pushing the revival even further. In an era where major film and television properties are often held hostage by nostalgia, series creator Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) has found a way to walk the line between tradition and innovation in a way that is sure to quiet detractors.

While the dystopian Alien films have long stood out for dealing explicitly with class and rapacious capitalism, vague anti-corporate sentiment is now little more than a common trope in film and television — look no further than The Lego Movie’s villain “Lord Business.” But here, with Alien: Earth, Hawley deploys these themes to ask if humanity is capable of articulating a new, positive vision for future, one that goes beyond cynical anti-humanism or the fight for mere survival.