Franchises once synonymous with theatrical spectacle are finding unexpected new life on television. Just as Tony Gilroy reframed “Star Wars” with the morally dense “Andor,” Noah Hawley takes the “Alien” mythology and bends it toward something startlingly intimate and complex, while not losing its sense of scale, menace, and stomach-churning anxiety.
In “Alien: Earth,” the year is 2120, and the planet is run by corporations that treat it like private fiefdoms. Cyborgs and synthetics live alongside humans, but the balance shifts when Prodigy Corporation unveils hybrids—humanoid shells infused with human consciousness, sold as the next frontier in immortality. The first prototype, Wendy, is equal parts child and weapon. When a Weyland-Yutani ship collides with Prodigy City, she and the other hybrids are thrust into a nightmare of survival, forced to confront life forms more terrifying than their makers could imagine.
It’s a vision steeped in dystopian cynicism—about billionaires chasing eternity, about corporations stripping the Earth for parts—and filtered through a Peter Pan-like prism of kids just beginning to understand morality. At the center is Wendy, whose uncompromising sense of right and wrong makes her both powerful and perilous. Playing that contradiction is Sydney Chandler, who broke out in the FX series “Pistol” and fought to embody a character caught between innocence, menace, and possibility. In conversation with The Playlist, she talks about chasing the role, the moral clarity and danger of playing a child with power, the freedom Hawley gave her on set, and the sci-fi dream projects she still wants to see come alive.
The final “Alien: Earth” episode airs Tuesday, September 23. This interview isn’t especially spoiler-heavy, but make sure you’ve watched the episode first, regardless. And for more, read our interview with “Alien: Earth” co-star Timothy Olyphant.
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Were you a hardcore “Alien” fan going in? And what else drew you to the story?
I loved that the love in this piece is between brother and sister. You don’t see that a lot. It’s beautifully done in Arkane, but sibling love isn’t often the thing that drives a story. Playing a kid is such a scary challenge, and such an amazing one. I’ve come to believe we have two childhoods: the one when you’re an actual child, and a second when we’re adults, when we’re trying to return home to that part of ourselves. It’s about exploring that inner child and finding the authenticity we had before the world hit us hard. Diving into Wendy let me dive into that personally, too.
And I’ve been an “Alien” fan for a long time. Sci-fi is my world. I went to school for writing, and that was my focus. So it felt like a perfect culmination. Having Noah Hawley, knowing what he did with “Fargo,” I knew he wouldn’t try to recreate “Alien.” Thank goodness, because you can’t do that. He was going to put his own twist on it. Again, my gut was screaming at me for all these reasons, and I just felt like I knew her. As crazy as the character is, physically and mentally, I thought, no—I know her, for some reason. So I wanted to try.
One thing that stands out is Wendy’s moral clarity—children see right and wrong very differently than adults.
Wendy is such a black-and-white character. She doesn’t exist in the gray space in between, which is where a lot of adulthood happens. That’s a power for her, but also a threat. When you only live in black and white, you can become merciless and narrow-minded in your thought process. Hopefully, if we go to a season 2, we can explore more of her opening up those compartments, letting good and evil bleed together a little more, and seeing the world as it really is—complex, not black and white.
The show keeps her powers vague. What was it like working with that ambiguity?
I’m someone who wants to know everything, so when her powers started growing in the scripts, I wanted to know all the ground rules: what can she do, what can’t she do? Noah and Migizi Pensoneau, our writer on set daily, said, “It’s hers. It doesn’t have to be explained.” We’ll dig into it more if the show goes further, but it’s another secret for now—even from her. She doesn’t fully know. That was actually a more authentic way to take it. She doesn’t know her limit, which is a dangerous space to be in.
So she’s really a blank page.
Yeah. She’s a complete blank page, which is another reason I was drawn to her. There’s a lot of creative freedom in that, too.
Does that make her more dangerous, maybe even closer to the monsters themselves?
That’s the question. Wendy is in a position where she believes she’s good, and she knows what’s right for everyone. That’s a dangerous space to be in for everyone else. She feels merciless in her understanding of good and evil. If you’re good, she’s loyal to the bone. If she considers you bad, you’re in a cage. If we go to season 2, I think those questions will arise—can she enter that gray area between black and white? Can she understand the complexities of human choice? Why someone might lie, why someone might be cruel, like her brother? What is forgiveness? Right now, she doesn’t really have that.
The finale flips the power dynamic—Wendy and the kids put the adults in cages. It’s ominous.
It’s dangerous. I’ve compared it to when you’re bullied as a kid, and you have imaginary friends who are usually big monsters there to protect you. Wendy legitimately has that now. And she’s in a body that is weaponized. A kid who’s being hurt might kick and scream. Wendy can kill you very easily. It depends on what she wants to do with that power. She’s also very curious—she will push boundaries to see where she ends up. That’s so fun.
What’s it like working with Noah Hawley?
He gives us a lot of space. He hands the torch off and lets you run with your character. That was scary initially because I like knowing I’m going in the right direction. But I was able to stop overthinking and actually channel Wendy. Noah gave me that gift because he trusted me to figure it out. And then, being in Thailand, with the 14-hour difference from Austin, where we both live, there were a lot of on-the-day adjustments. We’d had pre-production conversations, but everything’s fluid when you live with a character for that long, and the scripts are changing.
You have to release the closed fists, open your palms, and trust you’ll find it on the day—hats off to Noah for that. Especially for the Lost Boys, so much of it required impulse and freedom. We needed that space to uniquely play out our characters. That’s why every child is so individual. Each of us actors found our own way through it. I love watching this ensemble. It makes me emotional. Everyone’s so incredible in this.
You’ve said you’re a huge sci-fi fan. What’s on your dream list?
I have a list, but my top two are “The Way of Kings,” which is my favorite series ever. They haven’t made it, probably because it’s massive, but I’d love to be in that. And “Lilith’s Brood” by Octavia Butler. Fantastic book. It goes great with our show, actually. It has a lot of similar themes, but it’s phenomenal. It must be a film. It’s not yet. Please make that happen. I just want to be ‘Lilith.’ “Lilith’s Brood” is so good. That’s my sci-fi bookshelf, along with some philosophy.
I foresee an executive producer credit in your future for bringing these books to life.
[Laughs], I hope so!
“Alien: Earth” concludes this week on FX. Here’s hoping for a season two.
