Yes, That’s Really Alex Lawther’s Character’s Name on Alien: Earth

This article contains light spoilers for Alien Earth episode 1.

The Alien franchise has always understood something very important about the sci-fi genre: there’s gotta be some cool and/or weird names.

In the far-flung future established by Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, human and synthetic characters alike have monikers that dance off the tongue. The original movie, of course, features Sigourney Weaver’s mononymic “Ripley” (later revealed to be the surname of Ellen Ripley). James Cameron’s Aliens introduces both the android “Bishop” and young colonist Rebecca “Newt” Jorden. More recently, Fede Álvarez’ 2024 spinoff Alien: Romulus dubbed its Cailee Spaeny-portraying lead Marie Raines “Rain” Carradine.

Alien: Earth, the first TV series set in the Alien mythos, has quite the onomastic legacy to live up to. Many of the names introduced in episode 1 of the Noah Hawley-created show are sufficiently cool and/or weird, including an army of child-brained “hybrids” all named after Peter Pan’s Lost Boys. Only one name, however, is striking enough to make this viewer lean forward and remark “Wait, what? Did Wendy just say her brother is ‘Joe DiMaggio?’ Like the New York Yankee who married Marilyn Monroe and all that?”

“Yes, like the baseball player,” Joe DiMaggio actor Alex Lawther tells Den of Geek. “His surname is ‘Hermit,’ so Sydney [Chandlers]’s character’s family name is also Hermit. A lot of people call me Hermit, but she calls me Joe. For a Brit, [the name] doesn’t really have the same bearing on me. But then I realized it’s a bit like being called David Beckham.”

The David Beckham comparison is an apt one. Though the two played different sports, in different countries, and in different eras, both Beckham and DiMaggio are part of a select group of professional athletes whose fame transcended their occupation. DiMaggio played for the New York Yankees for the entirety of his 13-year career from 1936 to 1951, which included 13 All-Star game appearances, nine World Series wins, and a 55-game hit streak that has yet to be surpassed. Due to his humble beginnings as the child of Italian immigrants and his magnetic personality, he became something of a folk hero to New York City and the sport of baseball overall.

Alex Lawther’s character being named after a mid-20th century icon, despite the series beginning in 2120, reveals quite a bit about his family’s connection to an older, perhaps less cynical world – a world not dominated by five megacorporations.

“Noah has this really gorgeous vastness to the detail of his characters,” Lawther says of Hawley. “Even if it’s only tangential to the story, I have the feeling he knows their upbringings and background lives. It was a really important part of lore for the Hermit family – baseball was something that they would watch together, and became a sort of a myth of what it was to be a hero.”

In further praising Hawley’s ability to tell fresh stories in existing franchises, Lawther, who also played Karis Nemik in Andor season 1, summons the comparison that every sci-fi fan (and FX executive) wants to hear.

“I love what Noah was able to do with the material and make it very much his own. There’s an unabashed nature to his work, which I think is really satisfying. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with Tony Gilroy on Andor. Tony is really brilliant at that: saying what he wants to say with the material rather than being beholden to the previous lore.”

The first two episodes of Alien: Earth are available to stream on Hulu now. New episodes premiere Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on FX and Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally.