Alien: Earth may have laid the foundation for a franchise crossover we’ve all been waiting for since 2007, and we may not have even noticed it. Alien: Earth was groundbreaking for the Alien franchise in a number of ways. It obviously took place on Earth, which none of the Alien movies have ever done, but it also took place in an unexplored part of the Alien timeline, just two years before the original Alien.
While it’s not entirely clear whether Alien: Earth is canon or not, the show does have a big impact on the franchise. It also fits into Alien’s canon and timeline, as it essentially ousted the now non-canon Alien vs. Predator movies, which also took place on Earth. Even though Alien: Earth basically replaced AvP, it may have also opened the door for the crossover franchise to get rebooted.
Alien: Earth Introduced New Hostile Aliens To The Franchise
Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) investigating a beetle-like alien lifeform in Alien: Earth season 1, episode 3
A huge part of Alien: Earth is dedicated to its five alien species. We’re all familiar with Xenomorphs, and they get by far the most attention and screen time in the show, but the other four species are all important to remember. Alien: Earth introduced four previously unheard of alien species to the franchise, and they were all hostile to humans. Xenomorphs aren’t the only extraterrestrial monsters in Alien canon now, which is fairly significant.
Before Alien: Earth, the franchise had only ever mentioned two other alien species in passing, and both of them in James Cameron’s Aliens. The Marines mention both “bug hunts,” indicating a low-intelligence alien lifeform, and “Arcturians,” which are either humans from Arcturius or a separate, non-hostile alien species. The bottom line is, Xenomorphs were the only aliens ever shown on screen.
Alien: Earth obviously changed that. All five alien species in the show are featured in one way or another, and they all take at least one human or synthetic victim. That’s a huge departure from Alien’s tradition, and it’s a sign that Disney is ready to have more than just Xenomorphs terrorizing the galaxy. What better alien is there to terrorize the galaxy than the Yautja?
Both Predator & Alien Have Been Doing Extremely Well For Disney
Wendy looking shocked in Alien Earth
Another key part of this theory is more metatextual. In the real world, both Alien and Predator are owned by Disney, and both franchises have been doing extremely well for the mouse. Since Disney acquired the intellectual rights to both franchises through its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, everything they have put out has turned to gold.
The last two Alien projects and the last three Predator movies, all released under Disney, have been their respective franchises’ best performers in years. Alien: Earth was a hit with critics and moved the franchise into a serialized format. Alien: Romulus outperformed Alien: Covenant in box office earnings and ratings. Meanwhile, Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers have done similarly better than 2018’s The Predator in every metric.
It’s still early in its run, but the recently-released Predator: Badlands is already continuing this trend. It had an opening week box office haul of over $50 million, the fastest any Predator movie has ever made so much money. All this is just to show that Disney basically can’t lose with either Alien or Predator. Every story they tell turns out to be a massive hit. Alien and Predator are more popular now than they have been in decades.
Predator: Badlands Overtly Referenced Weyland-Yutani & Alien
Elle Fanning as This with milky eyes in Predator Badlands© Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Predator: Badlands didn’t just continue the “renaissance” Predator and Alien have been experiencing, though. Badlands actually took the first step in reuniting Predator and Alien through a very overt reference to a key part of Alien lore. Thia, Elle Fanning’s character, is a Weyland-Yutani synthetic. Any Alien fan will instantly recognize Weyland-Yutani as the main antagonists of the entire franchise.
Badlands outright confirmed that Weyland-Yutani and synthetics, and, by extension, the entirety of the Alien franchise, exist within the canon of Predator. That means it’s entirely conceivable that a future Predator movie could include an actual Xenomorph, a reference to Ripley, or any other manner of Alien references.
So, Alien is canon to Predator after Badlands, but it’s not yet clear if the reverse is true. Alien: Earth didn’t have an outright reference to anything from Predator, and none of the movies before it did. Alien vs. Predator is also still non-canon after Prometheus rewrote the origins of Weyland-Yutani. Badlands, however, opened the door for Alien to invite Predator back into the fold of canon.
Now Is The Perfect Time For An Alien vs. Predator Reboot
A Predator facing off against a Xenomorph from Alien.
Badlands has made something clear: there has never been a better time for an outright crossover of Alien and Predator than right now. All the pieces are in place. Xenomorphs are already part of the new Predator canon, and it wouldn’t take much to make Yautja canon to Alien at this point. Alien and Predator are also so popular again that there’s a legitimate desire for a crossover.
The chances of getting an Alien vs. Predator reboot are simply better now than they have been in nearly two decades. There’s almost a guaranteed profit for Disney in rebooting AvP. There’s also a huge overlap in audience between Alien and Predator, simply by virtue of attracting people who like gory sci-fi and watching scary aliens go on killing sprees.
It would also be so easy to reboot AvP. A prospective reboot could simply avoid trying to tell an origin story like the originals did, which would also keep Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and Alien: Earth intact. There are also huge swaths of open timeline in both franchises; the events of an Alien vs. Predator reboot wouldn’t have to have an effect on any previous part of either franchise.
Alien & Predator Projects Released By Disney
Alien
Predator
Alien: Romulus
Prey
Alien: Earth
Predator: Killer of Killers
Predator: Badlands
Yet another reason an AvP reboot looks like a possibility is because of animation. Animation has gained a lot of credence as a medium, and Predator has already leveraged it through Killer of Killers. It’s also an inherently experimental format; if Disney doesn’t want to go for broke on a big movie or live-action show, it can do an AvP reboot as an animated film instead.
There’s even a (admittedly smaller) chance a Yautja could crop up in a future season of Alien: Earth. The show clearly isn’t opposed to giving the Xenomorphs some competition as an antagonistic alien species. Earth also has a completely clean slate ahead of it. There are endless opportunities to fit a Yautja into the canon of that show because we don’t know anything about what happens on Earth in the Alien franchise.
I don’t know for sure that Disney actually will reboot Alien vs. Predator. There’s no predicting the whims of a multi-billion dollar corporation. However, if there was ever a chance AvP could get a reboot, now is the time to make it a reality. There never has been and never will be a better time to do Alien vs. Predator again, and it’s all thanks to Alien: Earth and Predator: Badlands.