After what has felt like an eternity in development, Alien: Earth is finally streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus this week. The long-awaited TV show reinvents the universe of the Alien movies as a terrifying eight-episode series. We've seen the first six of those, and you can find out what we made of them in our Alien: Earth review.
Alien: Earth is set two years before Ridley Scott's original movie and – as the name suggests – largely takes place on our own planet, which is a first for this franchise. But while showrunner Noah Hawley has made it clear that his show is doing its own thing and operating somewhat separately from the rest of the franchise, there are still some references and Easter eggs that link it to the wider series.
So join us here each week as we track all the Alien: Earth Easter eggs, starting with the first two episodes. But beware, there are major spoilers from here on out. And, if you need a reminder of when the show is on, you can also check our Alien: Earth release schedule.
Every Alien: Earth Easter egg, listed
Episode 1 - Neverland
The opening titles: The show starts with an electronic beep plucked from the sounds of the Nostromo in 1979's Alien – the film that the new show borrows from the most. The titles then start to slowly fade in, just as they did in that film.
The USCSS Maginot: The doomed ship that brings the various extraterrestrial lifeforms to Earth is a Weyland-Yutani science vessel. It's a very different sort of ship from the USCSS Nostromo, as seen in Alien, but the interior has a lot of visual similarities, with the mess hall, cryo chamber, bridge, and the room where Morrow talks to Mother all being based on the look of the Nostromo's interior. It's so accurate, Noah Hawley revealed to SFX Magazine that Ridley Scott, on seeing the Maginot for the first time said "Wow, f**k me, I know that ship!"
2120: The series takes place two years before the events of Alien, despite some bizarre early comments from Hawley suggesting that "It's somewhere around the events of the second film, either before or just after." Perhaps the date was changed during production.
The alien: We haven't yet seen the host that gave "birth" to this xenomorph, but it's interesting that it often runs on all fours, like the creature from Alien 3, which came from either a cow or a dog, depending on which version you watched.
The ship's cat: As we saw in some of the promo material leading up to the launch of the series, the Maginot has a ginger cat, just like Ripley's feline friend Jonesy, in Alien and Aliens.
Neverland Research Institute: Boy Kavalier's island-based outpost is named Neverland – a nod to the island home of Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, in writer J. M. Barrie's work. Peter Pan is clearly an obsession of "boy genius" Kavalier's, as we will see throughout the series.
The doom of the Maginot: The scenes on the ship play out like a speed run of the first Alien movie, with the crew of the ship busy at work when something goes wrong, the Xenomorph gets out, and the crew are killed.
This seems like a good time to bring up the significance of the name Maginot. The Maginot Line was a line of defensive obstacles and weapons installations built by France in the 1930s (and named after the French Minister of War André Maginot) that was intended to prevent invasion by Nazi Germany. While it was built along the borders of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, the result was that the Germans simply circumvented the defenses by invading through the Low Countries in 1940. In other words, it was an expensive failure that led to disaster...
MU-TH-UR/MOTHER: Morrow has high-level access to the Weyland-Yutani AI, just as Ash did in Alien. It seems to be the main point of contact between Morrow and Wey-Yu command.
"Will I dream?" Before Marcie has her consciousness transferred into the synthetic body of Wendy she asks if the process will hurt and if she will dream. This feels like a deliberate call-back to Newt in Aliens, who asks Ripley, "Can I dream?" as she prepares for hypersleep.
The space station: We see the Maginot partially smash into a space station in the orbit of the Earth. The only previous such installation we've seen in the Alien movies was the Gateway station that Ripley was temporarily based on in Aliens. It looks very different to the station we see here, though, so we have to assume that they are different facilities. Fan theory: Perhaps Gateway is built to replace this one after the Maginot trashes it!
Ice Age: Continental Drift: Wendy's human brother Joe appears to be watching the fourth of the Ice Age movies just before the Maginot crashes into Prodigy City.
Disney's Peter Pan: As Marcie has her consciousness seemingly transferred into the synthetic body of Wendy, clips from Disney's 1953 animated version of Peter Pan play on the screens above her. The name Wendy is, of course, another reference, with Wendy Darling being one of the main character's of Barrie's story, as are the names of the Lost Boys. It's interesting that Marcie chooses the name herself, though, rather than Boy Kavalier.
Guns and ammo: The search and rescue team that enter the downed Maginot are heavily armed with guns that look very similar (but not exactly the same) as the M41A Pulse Rifle from Aliens. Certainly they have a similar silhouette, and the distinctive ammo counters, though they appear to be lacking the underslung grenade launcher. There's also a glimpse of what looks like a M56 Smartgun, also from Aliens.
Facehuggers in jars: In a scene that recalls the Colonial Marines investigating the deserted Hadley's Hope outpost in Aliens, the search and rescue team discover some dead Facehuggers in jars.
Noah Hawley: Yep, that's showrunner and writer Noah Hawley playing the part of Joe and Marcie’s father, as seen in flashback.
The score: The distinctive horn motif that occasionally pops up throughout these two episodes sounds like a sample from Jerry Goldsmith's Alien score.
Episode 2 - Mr. October
Incident code 1562: Not a specific reference as far as we know, but an interesting new detail. Incident code 1562 means alien involvement.
The Lost Boys: Let’s quickly talk about the other members of Wendy’s squad, who get more screen time here. They are all named after Peter Pan characters – other children who never grow up. Adarsh Gourav's character is named Slightly, Erana James's Curly, Jonathan Ajayi's Smee, Kit Young's Tootles, and Lily Newmark's is called Nibs.
The blue mist: The clutch of eggs on the Maginot are bathed in an eerie blue light. Long term Alien fans will know that this strange membrane covered the eggs in the crashed ship on LV-426. It was also seen again in Alien: Romulus. The franchise has never officially explained what it is, or how it is created, though it seems to be a membrane of some kind that breaks when someone interrupts it – note how the alien only comes for Joe after he has breached it.
"Have a heart or face my fury!": Joe/Hermit quotes this line from Ice Age: Continental Drift – clearly a film he and Marcie loved as kids.
Mr. October: The episode title 'Mr. October' is a reference to legendary baseball player Reggie Jackson. The star earned this nickname for scoring three home runs for the New York Yankees in the World Series Game 6 on October 18, 1977.
"We don't like that word": Slightly suggests that the hybrids don't like being referred to as "synthetic," just as Bishop in Aliens preferred to be referred to as an "artificial person."
A statuesque killer: The Xenomorph concealing itself against the statue before slaughtering everyone at the party in Prodigy City felt a little like a callback to the way the original beast emerges from the pipes at the end of Alien.
Alien: Earth season 1, episodes 1 and 2 are now streaming on Hulu in the US, and on Disney Plus in the UK. For more, check out our Alien: Earth review, and our Alien: Earth timeline explained.
