Aliens the latest pop culture trend in television and movies?

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The X-Files — Courtesy of Fox Television

The Truth Is Out There

Of course, aliens and science fiction have always been an extremely prevalent aspect of pop culture. Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise and The X-Files are two iconic properties I would be remiss not to mention.

But horror and television goes through phases too. For a while, you couldn’t change the channel without seeing a television show featuring vampires, the Twilight era was upon us and it transformed vampires from blood-sucking monstrosities into leading men — see True Blood or The Vampire Diaries. There was an ebb and flow to the vampire dichotomy. For every romantic angle you had a show like The Strain, which fought to reintroduce the gruesomeness of vampires back into the mainstream.

Then The Walking Dead premiered and World War Z became extremely popular. Zombies were not only appealing because of their realism but because of our fascination with world-ending scenarios. With the virus always came the apocalyptic extinction.

Most recently, we’ve seen witches thriving in the television landscape with Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Shudder’s Discover of Witches, and even American Horror Story brought back its Coven characters. Again though, these witches were different from those we’ve seen before. They were darker, edgier, more satanic. These women came marching in blazing with female empowerment and blossoming sexuality.

Now we’ve come full-circle, back to aliens!

Here are some current and upcoming projects with a focus on extraterrestrials:

Project Blue Book: Having just wrapped its first season, Project Blue Book is about the very real covert operation from the 1950s in which the government was investigating UFOs and witness accounts. The show has been renewed second season on the History Channel.

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Roswell, New Mexico: Based on the original Roswell series, Roswell, New Mexico is a teen drama on The CW about Liz Ortecho’s return to home in the place made famous by the 1947 crash. She soon learns her high school crush is hiding a dark secret about where he came from. Roswell is currently airing every Tuesday night on The CW.

Now Apocalypse: One of the more surreal options in the bunch, but Now Apocalypse is a kinky new comedy with a twist currently airing Sunday nights on STARZ. The show has a strong focus on sexuality and the glossy LA life but the main character, Ulysses, begins having strange premonitions about an ominous presence invading their home. He begins to suspect there may be reptilian aliens living amongst us disguised as humans.

Captive State: A new and highly anticipated science fiction film starring Vera Farmiga and John Goodman, Captive State is a thrilling story about a race of aliens who enslave humankind “under the guise of peaceful unity.”

Captain Marvel: Aliens don’t always have to be evil, sometimes they’re the heroes. Although in the case of Captain Marvel, they’re a mixture of both. Carol Danvers is a Kree warrior and her enemies in the film are Skrulls, both are extraterrestrials beings. It’s not only this latest Marvel film that features aliens either. Almost all current superhero media is rife with aliens. They’re transforming and evolving with our pop culture landscape.

Captive State is now playing in cinemas nationwide, check your local theater listings for more details.

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What do you think about the recent alien craze? Do you like aliens in your science fiction? Do you prefer other supernatural creatures more? What are your favorite alien-themed television shows and movies? Let us know in the comments below!

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