Alien: Earth is rife with references to Peter Pan, with scenes from the Disney animated movie taking part in on the ceiling of the lab, and the naming machine for every of the hybrid kids. Neverland is the place kids go to not develop up, and the Prodigy-created hybrid kids is not going to age, even when their minds mature with life expertise. The references are blatant and specific, typically seeming too heavy (or sharp) handed. Clearly, Noah Hawley needs to ensure that audiences see one thing vital to the story involving the Peter Pan mythos. Many of those specific references wouldn’t have been attainable with out the Walt Disney and twentieth Century Fox merger that was accomplished in 2019.
Neverland and Captain Hook
Boy Kavalier reads an excerpt from Peter Pan that explains the darkness overcoming Neverland at evening and the uncertainty one has residing there among the many darkness, which appears to be foreshadowing. The Neverland in Alien: Earth is the island the place Kavalier’s facility is positioned and accommodates unbelievable issues that individuals might solely dream of, such because the hybrid kids and exquisite landscapes.
With the Maginot crashing into the Prodigy constructing and the alien specimens being collected, Boy Kavalier is instantly infatuated with a brand new challenge and brings them to his Neverland facility. An unseen consequence, nonetheless, is the dedication of Morrow to get the specimens again for his boss, Yutani. From the second Morrow first interacts with the youngsters, he’s depicted as Captain Hook, however with a knife coming from his hand as a substitute of a hook.
The Boy Who Would Not Develop Up
Boy Kavalier, performed by Samuel Blenkin, is obsessive about the concept of not rising up. He believes that by no means reaching maturity means you do not have to play by society’s guidelines. Sadly, it isn’t at all times society, or the rich, that dictates the principles. There are guidelines on the planet not created by people, as science has uncovered over time.
By ruling over Prodigy and taking kids from their properties, Kavalier appears to imagine he’s Peter Pan. He reads to the youngsters from the e-book by J.M. Barrie, however he appears to have misinterpreted the true that means behind Peter Pan: in the event you do not develop up, you do not attain the emotional maturity to empathize with different folks. Boy Kavelier, a tech oligarch man-child fueled by hubris, performs with life and humanity like a prepare set. This parallels what is occurring in the true world’s present socio-political local weather.
Peter Pan needs kids to play with him endlessly, and Boy Kavalier needs to search out somebody smarter than him with whom he can have an attention-grabbing dialog. His curiosity appears to be piqued when Curly chats with him about Wendy being his favourite. If the references proceed, which certainly they’ll, it makes one marvel what Boy Kavalier has put himself up in opposition to finally, in addition to the Xenomorph. Hawley defined in an interview with Decider:
“In order that they’re sort of trapped on this state. And that echos these characters within the first movie who had been trapped within the spaceship working for a company and so they needed to do what they had been instructed.”
The Innocence and Morality of Youngsters
Wendy claims her identify earlier than her consciousness is transplanted into her artificial physique, and she takes on the position of a mother-like determine to the opposite kids, very similar to her namesake in Peter Pan. She feels a way of freedom in her new physique that’s not sick and dying. She jumps off cliffs and runs at prime velocity.
Similar to Wendy within the story, she additionally experiences the ache of leaving her household behind to stay in Neverland. This wrestle is explored between Wendy and her brother, Hermit, in a number of methods. She watches him and is aware of she will by no means speak to him once more, till she does. When Hermit learns who Wendy actually is, he does not instantly name her Marcy. He calls her Wendy till he totally provides in to the concept that she is in a brand new physique.
Among the Peter Pan connections go even past the story. Actress Florence Bensberg, who performs the kid model of Wendy/Marcy, starred within the 2023 movie Peter Pan and Wendy as Curly.
The opposite kids provide their very own symbolism to the collection. Noah Hawley instructed Parade that his inspiration to heart the story round kids was the query of whether or not humanity survives.
“They have not been socialized to hate. They do not know how you can fake they are not scared. So they appear like the very best ambassadors of humanity.”
The actors convincingly painting youngster minds in grownup our bodies. They’re distracted and inclined to deception and exploitation, among the key flaws of getting a baby’s thoughts. Will the youngsters prevail over their Captain Hook? Will their Peter Pan nonetheless love them in the event that they wish to depart? Maintain watching on FX and Hulu to search out out.