Alien: Earth Has A Shocking Number Of References To A Classic Fantasy Tale

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Spoilers for "Alien: Earth" to follow.

The franchise may be called "Alien," but the face-hugging, chest-bursting, penis-headed little monsters have always only been half of the equation. Androids, from Ash (Ian Holm) in the 1979 original "Alien" to David (Michael Fassbender) in "Prometheus," have always been just as important to "Alien" as a property. The FX series "Alien: Earth" honors that tradition and explores different types of androids, too.

The first "Alien: Earth" episode's introductory text reveals that, in 2120, "the race for immortality will come in three guises." First, cyborgs, or humans enhanced with cybernetic parts. Second, androids, or beings who are completely synthetic in mind and body. Then, finally, hybrids, or human minds fully uploaded into synthetic bodies, "Ghost in the Shell" style.

"Alien: Earth" is all about the hybrids. The future of "Alien" has always been a corporatocracy, but "Alien: Earth" reveals it's not only the classic company Weyland-Yutani that rules Earth. There's also a mega-corporation called Prodigy, which is owned by the world's youngest trillionaire, Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), and is funding the creation of hybrids. While immortality has surely crossed Boy's mind, he claims he just wants someone (who he thinks is) as smart as himself to talk to, which the hybrids can provide.

The first hybrid created is from a terminally ill girl named Marcy (Florence Bensberg). Her mind is downloaded into a synthetic body crafted like an adult, because the bodies don't age naturally. Yet, apparently, the hybrid process requires a young mind because older ones can't handle it. That explains why the elderly mega-billionaire Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) crossed the stars to find immortality in "Prometheus" instead of downloading himself into an immortal body on Earth.

The now hybrid Marcy (Sydney Chandler) renames herself "Wendy," after Wendy Darling from "Peter Pan." The references to that story don't stop there, either.

"Peter Pan" was first created as a stage play in 1904 by author J. M. Barrie. The titular Peter is a boy who refuses to grow up and lives out his days having adventures on the magical island Neverland with the similarly ageless Lost Boys. The story features him taking Wendy and her brothers John and Michael to Neverland.

"Peter Pan" has been adapted many times over across the last century, and many of its characters, from Peter's fairy sidekick Tinker Bell to his pirate nemesis Captain James Hook, are pop culture icons. The most famous version of "Peter Pan" is the 1953 animated Disney film adaptation, since that's where most kids first encounter the story.

When Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, "Alien" was one of the films that came with that acquisition. "Alien: Earth" is hardly Disney-fied (there's a Xenomorph tearing someone apart in episode 1), but the influence of the franchise's corporate owners does show up in the "Peter Pan" references.

The hybrid creation process sees the human lay down on a medical table, across from their inert synthetic body. In the "Alien: Earth" pilot, the Disney "Peter Pan" is literally playing for the kids on a screen above the transfer tables, apparently to ease the youngsters into their new lives. The other hybrids, like Wendy, get their new names from "Peter Pan," with most of them naming themselves after the Lost Boys: Slightly (Adarsh Gourav), Tootles (Kit Young), Curly (Erana James), and Nibs (Lily Newmark). Notably, one of the hybrids (Jonathan Ajayi) chooses the name Smee instead, after Hook's first mate. We'll have to wait and see if that's a sign of him having sinister intentions.

The "Peter Pan" inspiration is clear in a larger sense as well; the Hybrids are all children, and in their new synthetic bodies, they'll never age. But it's not just the show being cute because Kavalier is leaning on "Peter Pan" in-universe. The name of his island research base where the Hybrids live? Neverland.

The final nod to "Peter Pan" is in the casting. Bensberg was literally in director David Lowery's 2023 film "Peter Pan & Wendy," playing a gender-flipped version of Curly. In "Alien: Earth," we get to see one of the Lost Boys grow up.

"Alien: Earth" airs on FX and streams on Hulu, with new episodes dropping on Tuesdays.