In 'Alien: Earth', the Future Is a Corporate Hellscape

“I deliberation we tin each work together that nan planet's astir to get a batch hotter and a batch wetter,” Hawley says, and Bangkok is simply a tropical location filled pinch rivers and canals. Originally, he envisioned Prodigy’s soldiers moving astir New Siam connected trains, but erstwhile he visited Bangkok, “it became very clear: We'll put group connected boats, [and] it'll thief waste this thought that nan h2o has reclaimed immoderate of nan city.”

Hawley’s creation squad built retired a quadrate mile of New Siam successful Unreal Engine, nan aforesaid graphics package utilized to create video games for illustration Fortnite and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. In nan eyes of Prodigy, location are “tiered layers” of nan city, according to Hawley: Humanity Minus, Humanity Plus, and Humanity Prime (though this conception isn’t discussed on-screen successful nan last trim of nan series).

“The higher you go, nan richer you are, and nan little you go, nan poorer you are,” Hawley says. When Prodigy soldiers descend to wherever nan Maginot crashed, we spot “Humanity Minus” surviving successful acheronian subterranean hovels, but erstwhile they ascend nan company’s supertall towers, they stumble upon a Louis XIV-themed statement consecutive retired of J. G. Ballard’s High-Rise. Even higher, we first meet nan CEO of Weyland-Yutani thousands of feet supra different firm metropolis (an unnamed 1 Chicagoans will recognize).

“Where Are nan Adults” successful a World Run by Trillionaires?

In our existent present, Elon Musk, a 54-year-old man who still thinks 4/20 jokes are funny, is poised to go 1 of nan first trillionaires. In nan 22nd period of Alien: Earth, nan “youngest trillionaire ever” is Boy Kavalier, played by Samuel Blenkin, an egomaniacal “boy genius” who founded Prodigy erstwhile he was 6 years aged and is now successful his early twenties.

“The CEO of this institution tells himself he's Peter Pan,” Hawley says. “And past you publication Peter Pan and you go, ‘That’s a acheronian book.’ He’s kidnapping these children, he's taking them to this island, [and] it's implied that erstwhile they commencement to turn up, he gets free of them.” In a bully literate parallel, Kavalier creates nan first hybrids successful a investigation installation connected a secluded land called Neverland and renames them aft Peter Pan’s Lost Boys.

Alongside his costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb, Hawley decided that Kavalier would deterioration pajamas pinch nary shoes passim nan bid because he owns everything successful Prodigy City and Neverland. “Everything’s his house,” Hawley says. “The point astir money that I've observed is astatine a definite point, everything is conscionable free. You don’t consciousness nan nonaccomplishment of nan money, you’re not really buying thing aliases alert of nan transactions.”

But Kavalier’s ultrawealthy mindset besides affects nan measurement he sees and treats different people. “Triage nan rescue by income bracket,” he instructs his right-hand man aft nan Maginot clang turns Prodigy City into a wide casualty event. Hawley says Kavalier “is a measurement of literalizing what I consciousness erstwhile I look astir nan world that I'm surviving successful correct now, which is: Where are nan adults? Where are nan group who deliberation much astir tomorrow than today?”

“Retro-Futurism” Meets Brand-New Monsters

The first section opens connected nan Maginot, wherever Hawley’s accumulation designers painstakingly re-created nan look and consciousness of Ridley Scott’s Nostromo. “That’s what Alien is, arsenic acold arsenic I’m concerned,” Hawley says. “It’s nan retro-futurism. It's those aged cathode [ray] conduit monitors. It’s nan greenish ASCII text. It's those crazy keyboards pinch nan Egyptian hieroglyphics where, like, really do they moreover cognize what they're writing?”

While 1979’s Alien spent 40 minutes establishing nan mundane lives of abstraction truckers, Hawley knew Alien: Earth had to execute nan aforesaid point successful conscionable 4 minutes. “Translating a movie to television, your first occupation is authenticity,” Hawley says, truthful nan Maginot was designed based connected Ridley Scott’s Nostromo blueprints “down to nan props.”