Unlike the screen time Xenomorphs usually get in the films, showrunner Noah Hawley and director Dana Gonzalez promise the Star Beast gets plenty more attention in Alien: Earth! Speaking to Collider, Noah and Dana discuss the series' Xenomorph – their approach with designing the creature, working with Weta Workshop, how it compares to Xenomorphs featured in the movies and how much screen time fans can expect from the Alien itself. They say, nothing in the entire franchise has ever shown as much Alien as they do in the show:
All the movies, if you really study them, are like, 20 frame, two seconds, they show the Xenomorph. We have huge sequences where all you’re seeing is the Xenomorph. It’s driving a lot of things. We have a pretty incredible performer that’s doing it and a great stunt team. We’re asking them to do a lot. Again, it’s finding the balance of how that works, because seriously, [nothing] in the franchise has shown as much as we have.
Regarding Xenomorph design, Noah Hawley addresses the brown-ish color palette the show’s Xenomorph sports compared to the Big Chap – Hawley leans in on the bug-like aspects of the creature (which may or may not be a good thing depending on what kind of Alien fan you are):
There are elements, like in the classic, there’s just this big ribcage, which feels very human to me, so I wanted to try to minimize that and play around with some other ideas. It’s very black in the movie. I wanted to play into more of the bug-like quality of it, so maybe it falls a little more in the roach coloration.
They also reflect on the series' use of practical effects over complete reliance on CGI – a staple of the Alien franchise:
And the Facehuggers we have, they’re all real. I don’t know how many we have, but we have many Facehuggers that do different things. So there are mostly real creatures. I think [it’s] the fact that WÄtÄ built these incredible characters that do several things really well that we can see them longer. Even the eggs are quite sophisticated, and we can show them.
The entire interview really dives deep into Alien: Earth's creatures, touching on the other specimens on board the USCSS Maginot as well. Be sure to hit the jump to give the whole thing a read!
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Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth season 1 began streaming August 12th, 2025 and spans 8 hour-long episodes. You can find a list of the episodes titles and their release dates here.
Early Alien: Earth concept art saw the Xenomorph as an agile climber!
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Go behind the scenes of Alien: Earth – stunt work & weapons featurette!
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Early Alien: Earth Xenomorph concept art by Ken Barthelmey!
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