'Alien Earth' series on FX, Hulu a prequel to original 'Alien' movie

NEW YORK (WABC) -- More than 40 years after the first "Alien" movie hit theaters, the xenomorph is back, this time to terrorize audiences at home.

The new FX series "Alien Earth" is the first television show from a franchise that features nine movies.

It takes place two years before the events in the original "Alien" film, and is filled with even more creatures that seemed to have crawled straight out of a nightmare.

It's part sci-fi, part horror, and ready to claw its way onto your screens.

The show transports viewers to the year 2120.

"The original film, which I watched way too young," said Babou Ceesay, "Morrow." "It's the horror. It's the xenomorph. It's the chest person moment which is, you know, etched itself into my mind."

Think of a dystopian future where companies, not governments, rule the world, and technology is making the impossible a reality.

But what happens when a spaceship carrying some of the galaxy's most horrifying creatures crashes into a major city?

We're about to find out in the most anxiety-inducing way thanks to creator Noah Hawley and producer David W. Zucker.

"I think one of the boldest, in some ways, most harrowing decision Noah made from the start is to literally bring the franchise to Earth, because as those films are really sort of to our survival dramas, suddenly, we're in an entirely different landscape. It really allows him to blaze entirely new trails," Zucker said.

"The xenomorph is the xenomorph. I'm not going to turn it into some giant chicken or whatever, but around that, I can now introduce these new creatures, new human monsters," Hawley said. "We can sort of play around with the aesthetics of the world and turn 'Alien' into something that I don't think anyone would expect it to be, which is a sort of riveting character drama."

"Having eight hours instead of, you know, hour and a half, two hours," said Sydney Chandler, "Wendy." "The show is quite surprisingly, cerebral, and it asks a lot of, very important questions."

The series is about more than just aliens straight out of our nightmares, it explores themes like corporate greed, technology overreach, and what it means to be human.

"Big, quite, uncomfortable questions. So, I think it's a clever way of being able to talk about what's happening right now by using, like, a big impressive scary horror driven metaphor such as, 'Alien,'" said Alex Lawther, "CJ." "But, there's a certain playfulness as well because it is set in the future that seem there's enough distance for us to not feel like we're being, lectured."

"We were able to dive into a very, very human, complicated, unique relationship, which, I haven't seen, really anything like that before," Chandler said.

The first two episodes of 'Alien Earth' drop Tuesday at 8 p.m. on FX and Hulu, both owned by the same parent company as WABC-TV.