Alex Lawther on Alien: Earth: Finding Strangeness in the Familiar

When Alex Lawther first read the script for Alien: Earth, the actor admits he didn’t approach it with the weight of the franchise on his shoulders. “You end up approaching everything first and foremost as a reader,” he reflects. The iconic 1979 Ridley Scott film was in his “periphery vision” growing up, but what truly pulled him into the new project was the unexpected boldness of creator Noah Hawley’s writing.

Hawley, best known for his inventive storytelling on The End of the F***ing World, Fargo and Legion, has a reputation for taking familiar material and twisting it into something strange and singular. That quality, Lawther explains, was exactly what drew him in: “There was a real sort of boldness and strangeness, and I love strangeness. It didn’t feel like it was trying to imitate what had come before, but it still carried that DNA.”

For Lawther, stepping into such a well-known cinematic universe meant balancing respect for its history with an openness to Hawley’s unusual vision. “The world was so specific,” he says, “but at the same time it left space for imagination, for finding new corners of the story.”

Unlike many science-fiction projects that lean heavily on spectacle, Lawther emphasizes the human element that hooked him. The script, he recalls, was “oddly compelling,” with characters whose vulnerabilities made the danger all the more gripping. “It was the people you cared about,” he says. “That’s what makes the horror resonate.”

Though he remains tight lipped about plot details, Lawther hints at the ways Alien: Earth builds upon and subverts expectations. It is, he suggests, less about recreating familiar beats and more about uncovering what the xenomorph mythos can say in a new era. “It’s Noah’s spin, his take on it,” he explains. “And that’s what makes it feel alive.”

For an actor who has long gravitated toward unusual, challenging roles Alien: Earth feels like a natural extension. “I’m always interested in what’s strange,” Lawther smiles. “And this felt strange in the best possible way.”

Q&A on the series Alien: Earth with actor Alex Lawther. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.

When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat.