Popverse's top stories of the day

• Dune: Prophecy creators promise to bring the "complexity" and "grand scale" of Frank Herbert's books and Denis Villeneuve's movies to TV
• Marvel's TV head says there's "absolutely" a future for Jon Bernthal's Punisher after his Daredevil: Born Again appearance
• Meet the Grim Reaper of The Walking Dead TV show cast, and what goes into killing someone off in the show

The Alien franchise is back, baby, in all it's double-mouthed, chestbursting glory. Alien: Romulus dominated the box office this summer and, next year, the xenomorphs are set to lay an egg in all our hearts again when Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth comes to FX. But will the upcoming horror series fit into the timeline of the Alien franchise? It's a question worth asking, especially after the teaser and logline dropped today and seemed to put it into question. We'll explain in a sec, but first, get a look at the teaser here:

Yes, if you went to see Alien: Romulus in theaters, you likely have already seen this tantalizing bit of terror, as the 15-second clip played ahead of the film at most theaters. BUT, what we know you haven't seen yet is the official FX logline for Alien: Earth, which goes like this:

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

"Now hold on," you may be thinking, "Wasn't Alien: Earth supposed to be about the Weyland-Yutani corporation developing synthetic life?" You're not wrong to think so, reader, sources like Deadline reported rumors that said as much earlier this year. That said, this could still be true - the android component could well be a B-plot in the series that just didn't make it into that logline. What we're far more interested in is whether the rumors about the series placement in history are true.

As IndieWire reported all the way back in 2022, Alien: Earth will be a prequel to what's considered Alien canon, taking place somewhere around the 2090s. That places it before the events of Prometheus, which details the exploits of the human crew that first discover extraterrestrial life, and whose actions lead to (what we believe to be) the very first contact between the human and xenomorph species. But if the "planet's greatest threat" that's teased in the logline refers to the xenomorphs (or maybe some variation of them), Alien: Earth will feature humanity becoming aware of xenomorphs before Prometheus. 

So what does this mean for Alien canon? Is Alien: Earth set in an alternate timeline, where humanity encounters the xenomorph earlier than the 2100s (like in **shudder** Alien vs. Predator)? Or will the series reveal that humanity/Weyland-Yutani have known about the xenomorph before we thought they did? 

Either way, Alien: Earth will have us checking in on Popverse's guide to the Alien timeline. And with Noah Hawley doing the plotting, we'd be perfectly happy to update it.

Alien: Earth invades your TV in 2025. In the meantime, find out how Alien: Romulus ties into the rest of the Alien canon. Er, what we know of it so far.

If you love aliens bursting out of chests and hugging your face, then we have all you could want from  Popverse's Alien watch order, details on where Romulus fits into the Alien timeline, and all you need to know  on the upcoming Aliens TV show with Timothy Oliphant.