For Hawley, overlaying Peter Pan onto Alien: Earth ‘s science fiction made sense because of the idea of trapping children’s minds in immortal bodies that were created, and ruled over, by a literal boy genius. Moreover, because Barrie’s work isn’t quite as anodyne and sweet as Disney’s animated film.

Set in 2120, it hinges on a batch of alien and various mutating specimens who crash-land on Earth in a research vessel that’s owned by one of five corporations that now rule during this Corporate Era — a chillingly plausible schematic.

When Rob McElhenney hailed Noah Hawley as one of television’s greatest, it felt less like flattery and more like surrender. And perhaps it truly was the latter. The cinematic Alien universe made its first leap to the small screen this week with Alien: Earth,

Noah Hawley has once more turned a respected movie –– or movies, in this case –– into a successful TV series that innovates while honoring the source.

Fans were promised a dark, cerebral extension of the Alien universe in Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth, which would include corporate fraud, xenomorph terror, and challenging philosophical issues about syn