Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Alien: Earth” Episodes 1-2.
Of all the big, ambitious swings that “Alien: Earth” takes, none are riskier than the parallels that showrunner Noah Hawley chooses to draw between his new sci-fi series and “Peter Pan.” The FX drama makes multiple references to both the original “Peter Pan” story and its 1953, animated Disney adaptation. That will likely come as a surprise to viewers, especially those who are well-versed in the “Alien” franchise‘s past entries and its usual, grungy vibes.
There is a clear, important reason for almost every “Peter Pan” Easter egg in the two-part “Alien: Earth” premiere, though. Here is a guide to all of them.
Welcome to Neverland
Not only is the first episode of “Alien: Earth” titled “Neverland,” but that is also the name of the island facility where much of the show takes place. Like the fantastical island in “Peter Pan,” the Neverland in “Alien: Earth” contains both horrors and wonders the likes of which its inhabitants could, perhaps, never have seen coming.
Wendy Darling
“Alien: Earth” makes several explicit references to “Peter Pan” across its opening installments, almost none of which are more obvious or placed as front-and-center than the name of its heroine, Wendy (Sydney Chandler). Wendy Darling is the name of the central female character in “Peter Pan,” and it is that name that Chandler’s “Alien: Earth” character chooses to go by after her consciousness is transferred into her new, practically indestructible synthetic body.
Chandler’s Wendy notably does not fly at any point in the first two “Alien: Earth” episodes, but she does jump off a high cliff and land completely unscathed. She moves with a freedom on the show’s island, in other words, that feels purposefully reminiscent of the freedom Wendy Darling embraces on Neverland in “Peter Pan,” and that is not the only similarity between the “Alien: Earth” character’s behavior and that of her fairytale counterpart.
The Boy Kavalier
This next reference is never stated or even directly alluded to in the first two episodes of “Alien: Earth,” but Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) is very clearly intended to be a stand-in for Peter Pan himself. The “Boy” in his handle feels like a direct nod to Peter Pan’s moniker (“The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”), and Samuel Blenkin’s scene-stealing performance brims with a kind of charismatic, short-sighted immaturity that brilliantly calls the literary character to mind.
Peter Pan is also, of course, the figure who takes Wendy, her brothers and all of the Lost Boys to Neverland, much like how Boy Kavalier does with the group of kids in “Alien: Earth.” Even more importantly, Boy Kavalier’s characterization reflects the interpretations of Peter Pan that tend to paint the character in more of a villainous, selfish light than usual. (Making its central, arrogant trillionaire a Peter Pan man-child, additionally, feels like a very pointed jab on Hawley’s part at the tech bros and billionaires currently running amok in the our real world.)
Lost Boys and Lost Girls
Much like Wendy Darling in “Peter Pan,” Chandler’s Wendy in “Alien: Earth” becomes — despite her own immaturity and young age — a kind of maternal leader to the other hybrids that Boy Kavalier and his scientists create. The other hybrids, for their parts, then tend to circle around Wendy and follow her lead in much the same way that the Lost Boys — the fellow orphans that are taken to Neverland — do in “Peter Pan.”
And much like the Lost Boys of “Peter Pan,” the only price that the hybrids of Neverland must pay in “Alien: Earth” to keep living how they want is that they must forget about their families and cease all contact with them. For the Wendys in both “Alien: Earth” and “Peter Pan,” that seems to be a more costly price than she is willing to pay.
Never Grow Up
“Peter Pan” is the story of the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. In one of its most surprising narrative twists, the “Alien: Earth” premiere reveals that Wendy and her fellow Kavalier-created hybrids won’t, either. Their brains may continue to mature, but it is stated early on that their bodies will not.
In “Peter Pan,” it is not just the story’s eponymous character who is saved from aging when he is in Neverland. As long as they are there, the Lost Boys, Wendy Darling, her brothers Michael and John and even Captain Hook and the members of his pirate crew all get to experience Neverland’s anti-aging magic as well. It is, consequently, fitting that Wendy and her fellow Lost Boys and Lost Girls all cease to age after they travel to the Neverland facility in “Alien: Earth.”
Smee, Slightly, Nibs, Curly and Tootles
Chandler’s Wendy is not the only “Alien: Earth” character who is named after a figure in “Peter Pan.” Her fellow hybrids are, in fact, all named after either members of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys or Captain Hook’s pirate crew. In the first two episodes of “Alien: Earth,” these include Slightly (Adarsh Gourav), Tootles (Kit Young), Smee (Jonathan Ajayi), Curly (Erana James) and Nibs (Lily Newmark).
Good Old-Fashioned Brand Synergy
The “Alien: Earth” premiere does not just reference “Peter Pan.” Clips from the story’s animated 1953 Disney film adaptation also play on the ceiling of Boy Kavalier’s lab as his test subjects have their consciousnesses transferred to their new, synthetic bodies. This detail makes the whole going-to-Neverland aspect of Wendy and co.’s life-saving operations in “Alien: Earth” all the more explicit.
It is also something that Hawley probably would not have been able to pull off had Disney not bought 20th Century Fox. That merger made FX and, therefore, “Alien: Earth” technically Disney properties, and it thus enabled the latter to actually include what would have otherwise been barred or extremely costly footage from a beloved Disney classic in its episodes.
New episodes of “Alien: Earth” premiere Tuesdays on FX and Hulu.
