FX and Hulu on Tuesday launched “Alien: Earth,” the first television entry in the 45-year-old “Alien” franchise. The eight-part series begins with a double-episode at 8 p.m. ET and will stream internationally on Disney+ from 13 August, with the remaining six episodes dropping weekly until 23 September. Created by Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley, the drama is set in 2120—two years before Ridley Scott’s 1979 film—and follows a deep-space vessel, the USCSS Maginot, whose alien cargo crash-lands on Earth. “By bringing the story to Earth, we’re shifting to ‘can humanity itself survive?’” Hawley told Reuters, adding that the new creatures represent “the natural world reasserting its dominance.” Alongside the iconic Xenomorph, the production introduces four additional species designed to broaden the franchise’s horror ecosystem. Sydney Chandler leads the cast as Wendy, a human-synthetic “hybrid,” with Timothy Olyphant portraying Kirsh, a corporate security android. Early reviews from outlets including IGN, Engadget and USA Today describe the show as a smart, unsettling expansion of the brand that blends familiar body-horror aesthetics with philosophical questions about immortality and corporate power.