FXSince 1979, the Alien movies have left an enduring idea in our minds about a realistic and decidedly fraught state of affairs in the future. But what created this famously grim status quo? With Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott gave us a glimpse of this future history of the years 2093 and 2104. But neither of those films spent much time on Earth, and neither fully caught up with the 2120s of the original Alien.But now, with Alien: Earth, we’re finally learning exactly what happened to Earth in the future, and why only a handful of corporations — not countries — rule the entire world. In Alien: Earth Episode 4, “Observation,” one character gives us a brief history lesson of “the five” and how both Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani fit in. Mild spoilers ahead.What are “The Five” in Alien: Earth? Hermit tries to explain to the kids the state of the world. | FXAfter Wendy (Sydney Chandler) is revived, and the various “Lost Boys” start going about their business, one scene late in the episode finds all these Hybrids hanging out with Wendy’s human brother, Hermit (Alex Lawther ). At one point, Curly (Erana James) asks Hermit, “What’s the five?” All the Hybrid “kids” have heard Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) talk about this group constantly, but they’re fuzzy on what it all means. Hermit explains it like this: “The old planet had something called governments ... they would vote for who they wanted, making decisions. That didn’t work, so these five corporations rose up, and apparently, they fixed all the problems. Now they work together to run things.”We’re then told that the five corporations are called:ProdigyWeyland-YutaniThresholdDynamicLynch How Alien: Earth’s corporate history changes canonBoy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) runs Prodigy. But he’s not the only player in the robot/alien game. | FXPrior to Alien: Earth, we were only ever aware of Weyland-Yutani, which, back in the context of Prometheus, was just known as the Weyland Corp, prior to the merger with Yutani. Alien: Earth has given us a few more breadcrumbs as to when the Yutani family, not Weyland, became the controlling figure of that company. But that’s not the most interesting thing about the explanation around “The Five.”More broadly, with the introduction of Prodigy and the reemergence of Weyland-Yutani, Alien: Earth has presented a slightly more realistic landscape than any previous installment in the franchise.The existence of “The Five” in Alien: Earth means that there isn’t just one corporation reigning over Earth, but there are still competitors. Yes, this is a capitalist future, taken to the logical conclusion of technological trends we see now. Weyland-Yutani isn’t the only organization that has an interest in building synthetic bodies in 2120, just like Apple isn’t the only company that makes phones on planet Earth in 2025. Whether these corporations collude to maintain governmental dominance over the people … well, that’s another unexplored matter entirely.Alien: Earth’s focus may not be on making social commentary about a sci-fi version of late-stage capitalism, but by sticking the story in this context, the canon of this enduring franchise has become more believable than ever. Alien: Earth streams on Hulu.