

In the original script, the ship had an all-male crew, though it noted that all parts were gender-interchangeable. The writers expected it to be a low-budget film, but the success of Star Wars inclined Fox to invest millions. Brandywine Productions, a company which had a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, bought the script.

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. Incidents across several generations are chronicled throughout the franchise. The Engineers' other experiments, designed to exterminate the human race through the means of a deadly mutagen, paves the way for the Aliens to rise and populate through the traumatic implantation of larvae in hosts. A member of an ancient humanoid species, called the "Engineers", sacrifices himself, allowing his DNA to spark the genesis of mankind. The series fictionalizes the origin of the human race. Throughout the series, characters are repeatedly manipulated and endangered by the unscrupulous megacorporation Weyland-Yutani Corp, which seeks to profit from the Aliens.

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. The Alien franchise depicts a series of deadly encounters, predominantly spanning the 21st and 24th centuries, between humanity and the Aliens a hostile, endoparasitoid, extraterrestrial species. The fictional slogan and logo of Weyland-Yutani from Aliens 6.1 Alien: Isolation – The Digital Series (2019).

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, with main film The Predator (2018) featuring characters from the Alien series in its original cut. It has inspired a number of spin-offs – most notably the Alien vs. The series has led to numerous novels, comics, video games and a television series developed by Scott for FX on Hulu, with Noah Hawley. Scott also directed a prequel series, composed of Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), which follows the exploits of the David 8 android and the creators of the eponymous creatures referred to as the "Engineers". Produced and distributed by 20th Century Studios, the series began with Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, and was followed by three sequels: Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron Alien 3 (1992), directed by David Fincher, and Alien Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Alien is a science-fiction horror/ action media franchise centered on the film series which depicts warrant officer Ellen Ripley ( Sigourney Weaver) and her battles with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as "the Alien" or Xenomorph.
