No, Raised by Wolves Isn’t Connected to Alien — but They Have Something Key in Common

Is Raised by Wolves actually part of the Alien movie franchise? That’s one of the theories circling the upcoming HBO Max sci-fi drama, which dropped its first trailer on Wednesday. Since Raised by Wolves shares a creator with the Alien series — Ridley Scott — it’s easy to see why audiences might suspect a connection, but, as it turns out, the show takes place in a totally unrelated fictional universe.

According to Deadline, the new series “centers on two androids — Father and Mother — tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.” The premise does share a few things in common with the Alien series: conflict between humans and some powerful nonhuman species, space travel and colonization, evolution, and the nature of humanity itself. These are themes that appear in a lot of Scott’s work, in fact, including Alien and Blade Runner.

The actual Alien franchise has been in limbo for a few years now, thanks to creative issues as well as business complications. The last movie in the series was 2017’s Alien: Covenant, the second movie in a planned prequel trilogy (which started with 2014’s Prometheus). With the takeover of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the franchise rights were among many that shifted over to Disney. A 2019 Variety article revealed that the third prequel is in development, with Scott set to direct, but no further news has been released about the potential new installment.