Alien: Earth Has a Wild Connection to a Cherished Animated Franchise

Alien: Earth has an unexpected appearance from a cherished animated character: Ice Age’s Sid the Sloth.

Alien: Earth is the new science fiction horror television series created by Noah Hawley. A prequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien movie released in 1979, the show stars Sydney Chandler as Wendy, Alex Lawther as Joseph D. “Joe” Hermit, Essie Davis as Dame Sylvia, and more.

What is Ice Age’s connection to Alien: Earth?

With the first two episodes of Alien: Earth now available to watch on FX and FX on Hulu, a moment where an image of the Ice Age character voiced by John Leguizamo briefly appears is now going viral on social media.

As explained by @Polaapaan, “For people who are confused because they have not seen Alien: Earth, there is a guy Joe who watches Ice Age: Continental Drift. It’s a shared memory between him and his sister Mercy. So, in this universe, the Ice Age franchise exists, and that’s why it is canon.”

The Ice Age franchise officially began in 2002 with the Chris Wedge-directed movie. That was followed by five sequels and a spin-off: 2006’s Ice Age: The Meltdown, 2009’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 2012’s Ice Age: Continental Drift, 2016’s Ice Age: Collision Course, and 2022’s The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild. A sixth Ice Age movie is in the works and is currently dated for December 18, 2026.

The synopsis for Alien: Earth, meanwhile, reads, “When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, ‘Wendy’ (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s Alien: Earth.”

The cast of the show further includes Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav, Lily Newmark, David Rysdahl, Timothy Olyphant, Moe Bar-El, and more.