It might not be common knowledge yet, but the worlds of Alien and Blade Runner are the same. These two iconic works, both created by Ridley Scott, actually take place in the same universe and timeline, and their events intertwine in the same timeline. With the release of Alien: Earth, it’s interesting to understand when the events of Noah Hawley’s series take place.

Whether you want to do a timeline-focused rewatch or are just curious to know when the stories in the films, shorts, and TV series occur, here’s the guide you need.

Blade Runner – Alien Timeline

• 2019 | Blade Runner
• 2022-2048 | Waiting for Blade Runner 2049 and Prometheus
• 2049 | Blade Runner 2049
• 2099 | Blade Runner 2099
• 2079-2091 | Prometheus prologue
• 2093 | Prometheus
• 2094-2104 | Between Prometheus and Covenant
• 2104 | Alien: Covenant
• 2104 | Alien: Covenant – Advent
• 2120 | Alien: Earth
• 2122 | Alien
• The 40th Anniversary Shorts series
• 2137 | Alien: Isolation
• 2142 | Alien: Romulus
• 2179 | Aliens
• (2164) 2179 | Alien: Night Shift
• 2179 | Alien³
• 2381 | Alien Resurrection

2019 | Blade Runner

Movie
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenplay: Hampton Fancher and David Peoples
Release date: 1982

It all begins with Blade Runner.
Based on Philip K. Dick‘s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, one of the films that changed cinema and beyond. In a dystopian Los Angeles, we follow the investigations of former police officer Rick Deckard. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. Recommended version: The Final Cut, created for the 25th anniversary—digitally remastered. This is the only version over which Scott retained artistic control.

2022-2048 | Waiting for Blade Runner 2049 and Prometheus

2022 | Blade Runner Black Out 2022

2023 | TED 2023

2036 | Blade Runner: Black Lotus*
2036: Nexus Dawn
2048: Nowhere to Run

Short films + *Animated miniseries

Three shorts produced for the release of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Prometheus (2012). Blade Runner Black Out 2022 is an anime short film written and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo).
The other two prequels are directed by Luke Scott, written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, starring Jared Leto and Benedict Wong (2036: Nexus Dawn) and Dave Bautista and Gerard Miller (2048: Nowhere to Run).

The animated miniseries Blade Runner: Black Lotus (2021–2022) was developed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell).

In this timeline, the transition from Blade Runner to Alien begins in 2023.
The short movie TED 2023 — directed by Luke Scott and starring Guy Pearce — introduces Peter Weyland, founder of the Weyland Corporation, for the first time.

2049 | Blade Runner 2049

Movie
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenplay: Hampton Fancher and Michael Green
Release date: 2017

Villeneuve brings dystopian Los Angeles back to the big screen, this time following the Blade Runner K. Starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, and Robin Wright. The Canadian director adds his aesthetic to Scott’s world, resulting in an excellent neo-noir science fiction film.

2099 | Blade Runner 2099

Miniseries
Created by Silka Luisa
Release date: TBD

Further details on this series are yet to be released. The cast includes Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Dimitri Abold, Lewis Gribben, Tom Burke, Katelyn Rose Downey, and Maurizio Lombardi.

2079-2091 | Prometheus prologue

2079 | Happy Birthday, David
2089 | Quiet Eye, Elizabeth Shaw
2091 | Prometheus Transmission

Short films

These short movies promote Prometheus. Directed by Johnny Hardstaff, these shorts—along with other teaser videos—introduce the audience to the mission of the Prometheus.

2093 | Prometheus

Movie
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenplay: Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof
Release date: 2012

Scott returns to deep space with Prometheus, exploring the origins of the Engineers and the technology that will lead to the creation of the Xenomorphs. The film follows a scientific mission seeking the creators of humanity, full of mysteries, aliens, and advanced bioengineering. Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba.

This is the first time we see Deacon, a Proto-Xenomorph.

2094-2104 | Between Prometheus and Covenant

2094 | Alien: Covenant – Prologue: The Crossing
2103 | Alien: Covenant – Phobos
2104 | Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Last Supper

Short films

Directed respectively by Ridley Scott, Toby Dye, and Luke Scott, these shorts—along with others such as Alien: Covenant – Meet Walter—show what happened after Prometheus and introduce the audience to the next chapter.

2104 | Alien: Covenant

Movie
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenplay: John Logan and Dante Harper
Release date: 2017

In this chapter, we follow the crew of the colonial ship Covenant as they discover a promising but deadly world. The fight against the Xenomorphs and the plans of the synthetic David unfold. Starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice, Fantastic Beasts), and Billy Crudup (Watchmen).

2104 | Alien: Covenant – Advent

Short movie

The ending of Alien: Covenant leaves the audience on edge. What happens next? This short provides answers. Directed by Matthew Thorne.

2120 | Alien: Earth

TV series
Directed and written by Noah Hawley
Release date: 2025–present

Cyborg, synth, hybrids, humans, corporations, monster, and Xenomorphs. The new Alien series created by Noah Hawley (Fargo) expands, reinves, and at the same time honors the Ridely Scott’s works. Starring Sydney Chandler (Don’t Worry Darling, Pistol, Sugar), Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game, The End of the F***ing World, The French Dispatch, Andor), Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Game of Thrones), Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror), and Timothy Olyphant (Fargo, Deadwood).

2122 | Alien

Movie
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenplay: Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett
Release date: 1979

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) faces the Xenomorph aboard the Nostromo. Alien defines the horror-science fiction tone in space, mixing claustrophobia, terror, and advanced technology.

The 40th Anniversary Shorts series

Alien: Alone
Alien: Containment
Alien: Harvest
Alien: Ore
Alien: Specimen

Short films

Part of the Alien 40th Anniversary Shorts series. We follow the Xenomorph across the universe. Some of these shorts are more engaging than others; Alien: Ore may even connect to Alien: Romulus. In any case, all are worth watching.

2137 | Alien: Isolation

Web series

Seven episodes following Amanda Ripley, Ellen’s daughter, in space. You can watch them on YouTube.

2142 | Alien: Romulus

Movie
Directed by Fede Álvarez
Written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues

A group of young people attempting to escape to Yvaga III, a planet unaffiliated with Weyland-Yutani, board the Renaissance at the Weyland-Yutani station split into the Romulus and Remus modules. They soon realize they are not alone. Starring Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced (The Last of Us, Fantastic Four: First Steps), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), Aileen Wu, and Romanian former basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi as a human–Xenomorph hybrid.
Sequel expected.

2179 | Aliens

Movie
Director: James Cameron
Screenplay: James Cameron
Release date: 1986

Return to LV-426, this time with the Colonial Marines. Continues the story of survivor Ripley. Cameron expands the horror, giving it aspects of a war movie.

(2164) 2179 | Alien: Night Shift

Short film
Part of the Alien 40th Anniversary Shorts series. As with the other chapters, no specific year is mentioned — only the date 2164 is glimpsed. However, an extended version refers to the date 2179.

2179 | Alien³

Movie
Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Larry Ferguson and Walter Hill
Release date: 1992

Ripley lands on Fiorina 161 and must face another Xenomorph with the last survivors of her journey.

2381 | Alien Resurrection

Movie
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Screenplay: Joss Whedon
Release date: 1997

In the Blade Runner and Alien timeline, this is the final film in the saga so far. Two hundred years after Alien³, Ripley is cloned and, together with the Xenomorphs, finds herself in an experimental lab. Bioengineering has reached extreme levels, and genetic horror is at its peak.
An intriguing detail: after this chapter, which reached the ultimate body horror, Jeunet made Amélie in 2001.

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These Blade Runner and Alien Timeline are the main films, TV series, and shorts set in the Scott-created universe. Over the years, teasers, video games, comics, and novels featuring the Xenomorph have also been produced.

The enduring appeal of these stories, even decades after their creation, can be examined from many angles—but one of the most compelling explanations is also the simplest. Blade Runner can be read as a modern retelling of the Odyssey, Alien as a reimagining of the Iliad. The first is a relentless quest for reality; the second, a brutal struggle. In both, the encounter with the Other—whether navigating relationships with cyborgs, synthetics, and hybrids, or confronting monsters, Xenomorphs, and the corporations that enslave—remains central.

Timeless and endlessly adaptable, these narratives explore some of the most elemental human concerns: survival, immortality, and power.