HuluAlien: Earth features new monsters with new mysteries to unravel, so we spoke to the show’s mastermind about how they came to be, and the cast about what they’re most frightened of, including the terrifying ‘eye midge.’
Noah Hawley is both creator and showrunner of Alien: Earth, a new series that acts as a prequel to the Alien movies, meaning it could be Alien’s Andor.
When cooking up the story, Hawley says he needed new aliens because: “The one feeling that you can’t produce in an audience is the discovery of the life cycle of the xenomorph – we all know it – and so that genetic revulsion you felt at every stage is a little muted. The only way to reproduce it is to create new creatures that you don’t know how they breed or what they eat.”
Hawley and his writing team therefore cooked up new alien creatures to terrify his cast and characters, including the awful eye midge.
Alien: Earth cast are scared of the tic and the eye midge
Hulu/DisneyWe asked the cast which of the new aliens they were most scared of, and Alex Lawther (Hermit in the show) said: “What’s gruesome and great about this particular story is that we get to see these other creatures and how they gestate, how they reproduce, how they eat.
“We were talking earlier about the tic being something particularly visceral, and it’s been really great. Because an element of that is all live on set. There’s adjustments that get made in VFX, and now to see them and see how glorious and gory it is – that’s been a rare joy of watching back what you’ve made.”
Samuel Blenkin (Boy Kavalier) picked: “The eye midge. I won’t say too much about that, but maybe the eye midge. Although maybe my character wouldn’t necessarily be frightened by the eye midge – maybe it’s more kind-of a morbid excitement or fascination. But me personally I find the consequences of that pretty terrifying.”
Timothy Olyphant (Kirsh) agreed, stating: “That one’s on the top of the list.”
As did Babou Ceesay (Morrow) who said: “Yeah that one’s on the top of the list… where it could go to – horrendous. Real genetic revulsion.”
Olyphant adds that “it feels like there’s a lot more to discover there…” Which we do as the show continues, so SPOILERS for Alien: Earth Episodes 1 and 2 ahead…
The terrifying eye midge explained
Hulu/DisneyThe eye midge is first glimpsed in Episode 1 of Alien: Earth, trapped in a giant test tube, and appearing to study its surroundings.
The creature reappears in Episode 2, emerging from the eye socket of a cat, and attacking the hybrids before being trapped under a tray.
We won’t reveal the horrors that await victims of the new creature in upcoming episodes, but details of the monster can be found in the Alien: Earth trailer, written on a computer screen (and pictured above).
Here’s what the crew figures out about the creature they call ‘T. Occellus’:
Tentacle system that can grow or retract at will. The tentacles carry extraordinary strength and are built to climb into and dislodge the eyes of other living creatures.
Once replaced in the eye socket, T. Occellus takes over the ocular pathways to the brain, overriding the neuro-transitioning throughout the body.
More study needed to gauge inherent intelligence, though T. Ocellus has shown remarkable problem-solving skills at a near human measure.
Noah Hawley on crafting the new aliens
Hulu/Disney“It took a while to do it,” Hawley says of his new creature designs. “It starts as function. It starts when you look at the elements of the life-cycle of the xenomorph and the egg and the face-hugger and the implantation of the embryo and then the chest-burst.
“Each step of that evolution is just so awful, and you think that it can’t get any worse, and then finally you have a 10-foot monster and you think ‘that’s the worst thing’ and then the mouth opens and a second mouth comes out. So it really is about the reveals.
“You see this creature and you think, ‘Well that’s terrible, I don’t want that anywhere near me.’ And then you see, ‘Oh, now it does this.’ So it was always function for them, and then the form came out of a design process with WETA and building these props for the actors to see on set.”
Alien: Earth is out now, while you can also check out our guide to the Alien: Earth soundtrack and details of the weird Ice Age connection.
We’ve also got Dexerto’s ranking of every Alien movie, as well as how Predator: Badlands connects to Alien and the latest news on Alien vs Predator 3.