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'Alien: Earth' Showrunner Explains Those Killer Metal Needle Drops

Originally posted on Men's Journal | By Ryan Britt | Last updated Sep 11, 2025 9:15 AM ET

By now, if you're watching Alien: Earth, you may have noticed a pattern. At the end of every episode, the action is punctuated by a kickass song, usually from the hard rock or heavy metal genres. Basically, as the story gets more intense and the plot becomes more twisty, Alien: Earth is also dropping some classic hardcore bangers. The first episode ended with Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules," and the most recent episode, Episode 6, "The Fly," ended with "Keep Away" by Godsmack.

Most of these songs, interestingly, came out after the release of 1979's Alien, which is, of course, fine, since both then and now, Alien is set in the 2100s. But why is Alien: Earth going so hard with these needle drops? When Men's Journal caught up with showrunner and creator Noah Hawley, his answer didn't disappoint.

Why Alien: Earth has so many hard rock needle drops

"There's no needle drops in an Alien movie, really," Hawley tells Men's Journal. " So, I went into it thinking that it was all going to be score. And then, each hour kind of ends in a big cliffhanger, a big feeling. I put that Black Sabbath song at the end of the first hour, and it just created this energy."

Hawley's overall inspiration for Alien: Earth comes from the first two films in the franchise: Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). And, it turns out there's a bit of Aliens in the heavy metal needle drops.

"There's a moment in Aliens where Vasquez yells, 'Let's rock!' You can't go wrong with that formula," Hawley says. "It's a big sci-fi audience, horror audience. There's a lot of testosterone in there. I just thought, let's go big. Let's go out on these big anthems."