Fox will be releasing six Alien short films online

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

20th Century Fox is doing their best to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ridley Scott's classic ALIEN without having a new feature film in the franchise ready for release. Two weeks ago, they released a digital series based on the video game Alien: Isolation through IGN, and now they have announced that they'll soon be giving an online release to a series of six short films set in the ALIEN universe.

Fox and their creative partners at the online platform Tongal went through more than 550 submissions from online filmmakers to pick the six that they felt would be the best stories to celebrate ALIEN with. The six shorts and their filmmakers are: 

ALIEN: ALONE — Hope, an abandoned crewmember aboard the derelict chemical hauler Otranto, has spent a year trying to keep her ship and herself alive as both slowly fall apart. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life. Written and directed by Noah Miller.

ALIEN: CONTAINMENT — Four survivors find themselves stranded aboard a small escape pod in deep space. Trying to piece together the details around the outbreak that led to their ship’s destruction, they find themselves unsure to trust whether or not one of them might be infected.  Written and directed by Chris Reading.

ALIEN: HARVEST — The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along. Directed by Benjamin Howdeshell.

ALIEN: NIGHT SHIFT — When a missing space trucker is discovered hungover and disoriented, his co-worker suggests a nightcap as a remedy. Near closing time, they are reluctantly allowed inside the colony supply depot where the trucker’s condition worsens, leaving a young supply worker alone to take matters into her own hands. Written and directed by Aidan Breznick.

ALIEN: ORE — As a hard-working miner of a planet mining colony, Lorraine longs to make a better life for her daughter and grandchildren. When her shift uncovers the death of a fellow miner under mysterious circumstances, Lorraine is forced to choose between escape or defying management orders and facing her fears to fight for the safety of her family. Written and directed by the Spear Sisters.

ALIEN: SPECIMEN — It’s the night shift in a colony greenhouse, and Julie, a botanist, does her best to contain suspicious soil samples that have triggered her sensitive lab dog. Despite her best efforts, the lab unexpectedly goes into full shutdown and she is trapped inside. Little does she know, an Alien specimen has escaped the mysterious cargo, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as the creature searches for a host. Written and directed by Kelsey Taylor.

A selection of material from this series of shorts will be screened at the Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle this Friday, with other screenings to follow at C2E2 in Chicago on March 23rd and WonderCon in Anaheim on March 30th.

The shorts will be released through IGN on a weekly basis beginning on March 29th. On May 5th they will be added, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes content, to AlienUniverse.com and the AlienAnthology social media profiles.

Tongal co-founder and CEO James DeJulio had this to say about the project: 

This partnership with Fox is really reflective of Tongal’s mission to bring creative opportunities to the next generation of talent. Being able to give filmmakers everywhere the chance to make their mark on an iconic franchise and extend the Alien narrative was really special for us and everyone involved. And the superfans delivered in a big way. We can’t wait for the fans to see what they’ve created — because at the end of the day, it was made for them."

A teaser trailer for the short film series can be seen right here: