Like the "Star Wars" saga, the "Alien" franchise is something of a chronological Rubik's Cube, in that the movies coming out now predate the movies from the 1970s and 1980s on the fictional timeline.

The Alien franchise has lived and died many times over the years. Currently, it’s in a particularly prolific era, with last year’s theatrical hit Alien: Romulus becoming the biggest entry in years and ...