FX and Hulu’s Alien: Earth is returning for a second season, and it has a chance to finally fulfill one of Ridley Scott’s plans for the original Alien 47 years after the fact. The ending of the original Alien is rather famous; Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) shoots the Xenomorph off into space and puts herself into cryosleep with her cat, Jonesy. It’s as iconic as the film itself, especially since Aliens and other subsequent Alien movies built off it so much, but that wasn’t always the way Alien was supposed to end.
The original ending for Alien that director Ridley Scott had planned was much darker than the final version. Instead of managing to blast the Xenomorph into space, the Xenomorph was going to kill Ripley, commandeer the escape shuttle, and mimic Dallas’ voice to lure in rescuers and secure more victims. Evidently, studio executives at Fox vetoed that decidedly bleak ending in favor of a more triumphant win and Ripley’s survival.
Alien’s official ending was objectively better than the one Scott originally had in mind. Ripley’s death would have ended Alien on a very sour and depressing note, and the entire film would have felt like a lesson in futility. The Xenomorph’s intelligence and ability to mimic human speech, as well, would have been an underwhelming twist. While that ending wouldn’t have worked for Alien, it may be able to work for Alien: Earth.
Alien: Earth season 2 was renewed shortly after the first season ended, which gives the series quite a bit of creative freedom. It’s not clear yet how long the series will last, but there’s a very good chance that creator Noah Hawley is intending to end the season in a conclusive way when the time is right. When Alien: Earth is ready to end, it would be the perfect opportunity to use the bleak ending for Alien that Ridley Scott originally envisioned.
It Makes Sense For Alien: Earth To Kill Everyone Off When It Ends
Sydney Chandler’s Wendy looking intrigued with Alex Lawther’s Joe pointing a flashlight in the background in Alien: Earth season 1
The biggest reason Alien: Earth may use the original ending for Alien is because it would just work. Alien: Earth occupies a strange space in Alien canon. It doesn’t directly contradict anything previously established in the franchise, but it is a bit jarring to have human-android hybrids, Xenomorphs on Earth, and new super-powerful corporations competing with Weyland-Yutani. The show also opens up a litany of questions about how movies that take place later on in the Alien timeline weren’t more impacted by the events of Alien: Earth.
The easiest way to quell any potential problems Earth would cause for the wider Alien canon would be by killing off the show’s main cast. Wendy and the Lost Boys can’t wreak havoc on Weyland-Yutani and the rest of Earth if they’ve all been killed, either by the Xenomorph or by Yutani’s forces. Boy Kavalier and Prodigy can’t compete with Weyland-Yutani if they’re all dead. Humanity also wouldn’t be aware of the Xenomorphs if everyone involved in discovering them in Alien: Earth doesn’t live long enough to tell the tale.
Ending by killing off everyone of import would also make sense with Alien: Earth’s central message. The entire show is about how humans are just as monstrous as the Xenomorphs, and about the dangers of their creations. Alien: Earth could lean into its status as a non-canon spinoff show and have the hybrids destroy the Earth, making that central message very clear.
Alien: Earth’s ending could even tie into the ending of Alien: Resurrection if it kills everyone off. Resurrection ended with Ripley and Annalee looking out at a devastated Earth, though the film didn’t actually explain what happened to the human home world. If Alien: Earth decides to have the Lost Boys fully turn against humanity, the ensuing war could easily explain how Earth was destroyed.
A Bleak Ending Would Fit Alien: Earth’s Tone
Boy Kavalier sitting on a table in Alien Earth
Killing off Wendy and the Lost Boys would also fit perfectly with the tone of Alien: Earth. The show has already gone to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate that, like the rest of the Alien franchise, no one is safe, and this isn’t a happy story. Main characters, like Tootles, Arthur Sylvia, Siberian, and almost the entire crew of the USCSS Maginot all died gory deaths. Alien: Earth has presented itself as a brutal and deadly show, and a brutal and deadly ending would be perfectly on-brand.
A depressing ending to Alien: Earth would also fit with the tone of Alien as a whole. None of the Alien movies left things on particularly positive ground. Alien and Aliens both ended with Ripley and company being jettisoned into an uncertain fate, left to drift in the endless darkness of space. Alien 3 ended with Ripley’s death, and Alien: Resurrection ended with a vision of a devastated Earth. Alien: Covenant is arguably the worst offender, as it ends with the sadistic David exercising free rein on a human colony ship that he’s about to turn into test subjects for his Xenomorphs.
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Noah Hawley confirms Alien: Earth season 2’s filming start window as he also offers an update on the season’s scripts and moving to a new location.
The only two Alien films that arguably have hopeful endings are Prometheus and Alien: Romulus, and even they are tinged with darkness. Prometheus ends with Shaw and David going off towards an uncertain future, and Covenant revealed that only pain and horror awaited them. Romulus ends with Rain and Andy escaping into what seems to be safety, but they also now have to live with all the horrors and trauma of what they survived. Alien: Earth could join the rest of the franchise and leave its story in a very dark place, and it could use Ridley Scott’s own ideas to do that.
Release Date
August 12, 2025
Directors
Dana Gonzales, Ugla Hauksdóttir, Noah Hawley
