Spoilers Alien Earth (2025 Hulu show)

[Tosk]

The franchise's "idea" rights belong to Ridley Scott,(More precisely, as far as I understand, after the Alien productions before 2010, Ridley Scott acquired the 'idea' rights of the franchise.) and anyone directing an Alien series or film must satisfy him. He's also the producer of that series and Alien Romulus. Neill Blomkamp also had an Alien 5 project that would erase the history of Alien 3 and 4. At least, until Ridley Scott waved his hand in a camera-focused environment and declared, "You can't make Alien!", Ridley Scott was on the fence about anyone but him making Alien. He's recently changed his mind.

What are "idea" rights?

 

[DigificWriter]

Apparently I overestimated/was just plain mistaken about the level of creative involvement and control that Ridley Scott has over the Alien IP, so Mea Culpa on that.

 

[FredH]

Hawley flat-out said that, despite not actually having the authority to do so, he's pretending that Prometheus and Alien: Covenant don't exist, which immediately and automatically puts Alien Earth at odds with the movies.

It puts it at odds with Prometheus and Covenant (and ironically, probably not with the AVPs). Movies 1-4 may take place later, but they were created long before Prom/Cov, and so far I don’t believe they’ve been contradicted (or rejected by Hawley) in any way. (And if the series doesn’t ultimately contradict Prom/Cov in any significant way, then Hawley having written them off won’t even matter.)