How 'Alien: Earth' reinvented the Xenomorph for our planet

As its title suggests, Alien: Earth was always going to bring Alien 's Xenomorphs to our home planet. So how would the series adapt the legendary movie monster to its new environment?

That was the challenge the staff at Wētā Workshop faced going into their work on Alien: Earth . Vaughan Flanagan, a supervising art director at Wētā, and Joe Dunckley, a senior art director at Wētā, walked Mashable through their process over a Zoom interview.

"We were very keen to explore Xenomorph design, but we were also very nervous about that, because within the creature design space, the Xenomorph is highly venerated amongst a lot of our artists," Flanagan said. "There's always that trepidation when it comes to messing with the perfect organism."

Wētā has worked in the Alien universe befor