Alien (franchise)

Alien is a science fiction horror and action media franchise created by screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, which began as the 1979 film Alien. The series primarily follows deadly encounters between humans and the extraterrestrial Xenomorphs in the future.

Released as seven films distributed by 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox) and produced by Brandywine Productions since 1979, the series has led to numerous novels, comics, and video games, and a 2025 television series created by Noah Hawley titled Alien: Earth. Sigourney Weaver starred as warrant officer Ellen Ripley in the first four films, Alien, Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997). The other three films follow different characters, and include prequels Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), and Alien: Romulus (2024), an interquel between the first two films. The films were directed by Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Fede Álvarez. An eighth film is in preproduction as of 2025^[update].

The film series has also inspired a number of spin-offs—most notably the Alien vs. Predator series, which combines the continuities of the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise and consists of two films as well as various series of comics, books, and video games.

The Alien franchise depicts a series of deadly encounters, predominantly spanning the 22nd and 24th centuries, between humanity and the Xenomorph; a hostile, endoparasitoid, extraterrestrial species. Humanity is depicted as a space-faring species with an interstellar dominion; space journeys typically last months, even years, and require the use of cryosleep. Throughout the series, characters are repeatedly manipulated and endangered by the unscrupulous megacorporation Weyland-Yutani Corp, which seeks to profit from the Xenomorph.

The series fictionalizes the origin of the human race. A member of an ancient humanoid species called the Engineers sacrifices himself, allowing his DNA to spark the genesis of mankind. The Engineers' other experiments, designed to exterminate the human race through the means of a deadly mutagen, pave the way for the Xenomorphs to rise and populate through the traumatic implantation of larvae in hosts. Incidents across several generations are chronicled throughout the franchise.

Writer Dan O'Bannon, wanting to write a science-fiction action film, collaborated with screenwriter Ronald Shusett on a script, initially titled Star Beast, but eventually changed to Alien. Brandywine Productions, a company which had a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, bought the script. The writers expected it to be a low-budget film, but the success of Star Wars inclined Fox to invest millions.

In the original script, the ship had an all-male crew, though it noted that all roles could be played by men or women without major changes to the film. The Ripley character was initially to be played by Tom Skerritt, but when Fox president Alan Ladd Jr. and the producers at Brandywine heard rumors of Fox working on other titles with strong female leads, it was decided to cast a female as Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Skerritt became Captain Dallas. Ridley Scott came on as director.

Swiss painter and sculptor H. R. Giger designed the alien creature's adult form and the derelict ship, while French artist Mœbius created the look of the spacesuits and Ron Cobb provided most of the industrial design for the sets.