According to a tweet from Disney’s official Twitter account, an Alien TV show is coming to FX and though a release date wasn’t mentioned, the news brings some implications about the movie franchise’s future, especially given the Earth setting. The tweet stated that fans can “expect a scary thrill ride set not too far in the future here on Earth.” To date, Alien movies have yet to be totally set on Earth. The Alien movies do reference Earth to some extent, especially in the prequels, with some differences and similarities to real-life Earth. Despite what most fans hope, the franchise’s titular alien probably won’t make an appearance, since it doesn’t come into existence until 84 years from 2020 in 2104, which can hardly be considered the near future.
Likewise, the series probably won’t be set during the events of the first Alien prequel Prometheus, either. Prometheus opens on an Earth approximately 69 years from today, again hardly the near future. However, an Earth setting this far in the future, in the year 2089, would create considerable overlap with Prometheus and would definitely be enlightening, as viewers would learn what was happening on Earth right before the ship Prometheus makes contact with the Engineers. This would provide additional context for and insight into the motivations of the characters in Prometheus other than what was already provided in the movie.
The second prequel, Alien: Covenant, takes place 11 years after Prometheus, in the year 2104, just 18 years before the events of the original Alien movie. If the TV show is set during this time, the Xenomorph would already exist and someone on Earth would possibly know about it. If this were the case, the series might explain the circumstances leading up to the original Alien and the reasons someone on Earth wanted to study it at all costs. However, it is unlikely that the Alien television series will be set during either of the prequels, since they are set too far in the future.
The show will likely be set much closer in time to real-life, modern-day Earth, as Disney’s tweet states. This is a good thing, because if it were set, for example, in 2039—50 years before the events of Prometheus—it would most likely feature the enigmatic and pivotal character, Peter Weyland. Born in 1990, Weyland, a British entrepreneur and inventor, was approximately 99 years old at the beginning of Prometheus. In 2039, he would be around 49 years old. An Alien television series set on Earth at this time would take place during the height of Weyland’s power and could portray him as a protagonist, a villain, or both.
A more interesting move would be to set the Alien television series during Weyland’s rise to power, just a few years from today. In 2020, Weyland is 30 years old, and by that time, according to unconfirmed sources on a popular Alien fan site, has already won a Nobel Peace prize for ending global warming. In the short film, TED 2023, Weyland gives a TED Talk in which he mentions some of his achievements up to then, which include curing cancer. If the series were set in 2023, viewers would potentially get to witness the development of Weyland’s many further achievements, including the creation of the android David, and the beginning of Earth’s interstellar colonization.
An Alien television series featuring Weyland as its main character would certainly provide a lot of insight into how conditions on Earth led to the events portrayed in the movies. However, given that much of Weyland’s fate is already known, it is most likely that new characters will be also introduced, possibly as antagonists or protagonists to Weyland. These new characters and how they relate to life on Earth would also reveal a lot about the fate of Earth itself in the movies. In Alien Resurrection, the franchise entry set furthest in the future, Ron Perlman’s character mentions that Earth is a “s**thole.” An Alien television series set on Earth in the near future would undoubtedly reveal how it became that way, regardless of who its main characters are.
Originally from https://screenrant.com/alien-fx-tv-show-earth-setting-meaning-explained/