Benjamin Rashidi was a sergeant in the tactical response unit of the Prodigy Corporation in Alien: Earth, leading a squad of soldiers in Prodigy City, New Siam. In 2120 he led the first soldiers into the wreck of the USCSS Maginot alongside Siberian and medic Joe Hermit, and he later moved with his squad to the Neverland research island. There he stopped Hermit's escape with two hybrids and fought through the Neverland lockdown, where he saw Siberian killed by a loose specimen.
Biography
The Squad Leader
Benjamin Rashidi was a 32-year-old sergeant in the tactical response unit of the Prodigy Corporation, stationed in Prodigy City in 2120. He led a close-knit squad that included Siberian, the soldier Brahma and the medic Joe Hermit, and he answered to the unit's chief, Nagg. Other soldiers in the unit included Anant, Cortez and Bergerfeld, and the squad was among the first Prodigy forces called out when the Maginot came down over the city.
Off duty the squad gathered on the rooftop of the tactical headquarters, where Brahma and the others played ball games between shifts. On the day of the crash Rashidi and Siberian pressed Hermit about his plans, and Hermit told them he had to serve out his contract before he could think about medical school. The conversation ended when a starship came down out of the sky over the city.
The Maginot Crash
The Weyland-Yutani research vessel USCSS Maginot slammed into a Prodigy residential tower, and the unit was rushed to the scene within minutes. Nagg sent Brahma upstairs to evacuate the wounded and ordered Rashidi to take four soldiers to the ground floor. Outside the building, medics set up an aid tent for the injured as survivors streamed out of the damaged tower.
Rashidi kept Hermit close as the squad pushed through panicked crowds and moved floor by floor, calling out to residents and checking apartments for survivors. At the breach where the ship had buried itself in the building, he had the soldier Cortez radio for a fire suppression unit and told the team to call out any smell of sulfur before they moved in. Cortez reported the crash to dispatch as a major incident with multiple injuries, deaths and property damage, and the squad entered the ship itself.
Inside The Maginot
Inside the wreck Rashidi split the squad, sending two soldiers one way while he took Siberian and Hermit the other. In the hypersleep chamber they found Maginot crew members dead, and Hermit judged from the blood that they had died a week or more before the crash. Rashidi noticed that something had crawled out of one of the bodies and decided the team had to find what had left the trail.
The trail led to the medical bay, where doctor Rahim, science officer Chibuzo and apprentice engineer Malachite lay dead around an interrupted operation. Rashidi questioned why anyone would perform surgery on a crashing ship, and Hermit found records of foreign bodies in the patient that pointed to an alien life form. Unknown to the soldiers, a Xenomorph was already moving through the ship around them.
The Broken Stairwell
Leaving the ship, the three soldiers came out into a wrecked stairwell of the tower where a section of the stairs had collapsed. Rashidi decided they would have to jump, cleared the gap himself and caught Siberian when she landed short, hauling her up from the edge. When Hermit tried to follow, the Xenomorph lunged at him, and he fell to a lower floor with the creature in pursuit. Rashidi and Siberian were cut off from him, and Hermit's later radio calls to the pair went unanswered.
While the search went on, a team of Prodigy specialists working on orders from the founder reviewed the unit's roster and identified Rashidi by name, age and rank as the leader of Hermit's missing team. Communications inside the tower had failed, and Hermit, still searching on his own, went on to find his sister Marcy among the Prodigy hybrids. Rashidi and Siberian came through the tower alive and stayed with the unit after the site was secured.
Reunion On Neverland
After the tower was secured, the surviving squad was reassigned to Neverland, the Prodigy research island where the Maginot specimens had been taken. Hermit, brought there separately, asked Boy Kavalier whether Rashidi and Siberian were safe, and Kavalier answered by putting the two soldiers on a video feed. Rashidi teased his friend over the screen and confirmed that the whole squad now worked on the island.
Later Rashidi came to collect Hermit for a jungle patrol that was short a man, cutting short a private talk between Hermit and the hybrid Slightly, and he excused the interruption as an order from above. On patrol he explained that the unit was there in case Weyland-Yutani tried to take its specimens back by force. When Hermit asked about leaving, Rashidi mentioned the airships and boats, noted that the island had its own security, and described the squad as hired muscle that the company considered expendable.
Standoff At The Docks
Hermit took the information and led his sister Wendy and the hybrid Nibs to the Neverland boat dock in an attempt to flee the island. Rashidi and Siberian were waiting at the boat with the island's security forces, and Rashidi tried to calm the situation, insisting they were only there to talk. He refused to let the group leave, saying his orders were to bring them back.
The standoff collapsed into a violent fight as the hybrids turned on the soldiers, and it ended only when Hermit shot Nibs himself. Rashidi ordered his friend to drop the weapon, and Hermit and the hybrids were taken back into custody. The failed escape left a rift between Hermit and the squad, though Rashidi and Siberian still regarded him as one of their own.
Lockdown On Neverland
When the Maginot specimens broke loose and a Weyland-Yutani raid closed in, Rashidi and his soldiers reached the hybrid program's mentor Dame Sylvia in the jungle after his team fired on a creature, and he escorted her back to the facility. With Siberian he saw her into a secure room, told her to keep the doors locked and set off to find other assets and secure Kavalier. By then the island was cut off, since a Cyborg had severed the underwater trunk line and Weyland-Yutani was jamming the satellites, and nonessential personnel were being prepared for evacuation.
With communications cut and the alert raised, Rashidi followed protocol and set out for the armory on the ground floor to collect heavier weapons, reassuring a frightened Siberian along the way. An elevator stalled under them while a hoax self-destruct countdown played over the intercom, leaving the pair shaken but unhurt. As they moved on, the two argued over Hermit, weighing his shooting of Nibs and his choice to side with the hybrids against the fact that he was still one of their own.
The Loss Of Siberian
The search brought Rashidi, Siberian and the rest of the team into a darkened laboratory where specimen containment had already failed. He announced the soldiers as security services and split the room with the others, but the escaped D. Plumbicare was waiting above them. It seized Siberian from the ceiling and dragged her upward while she fired and screamed, and Rashidi could only watch as she was killed.
Rashidi was not shown again in the first season after the laboratory attack, and his fate during the hybrids' takeover of Neverland was left unresolved. In the same hours Wendy and the other hybrids seized control of the island, while a Weyland-Yutani force led by Yutani moved in to recover the specimens.
Behind The Scenes
Rashidi was played by Moe Bar-El in the first season of Alien: Earth, created by Noah Hawley, which premiered on FX and Hulu on August 12, 2025. FX's official character guide describes Rashidi as a Prodigy tactical soldier who is there to get the job done and go home, and Bar-El has described him as the captain of his crew, among the first people to enter the crashed Weyland-Yutani ship on a search and rescue mission.
Bar-El moved to the United Kingdom from Iran at the age of ten and is an Olivier-nominated stage actor. Before Alien: Earth his screen work included the series The Bureau, Tehran and The Peripheral, along with the films Femme, The Return and Dune: Part Two. Alien: Earth, his highest-profile role to date, is set in 2120, two years before the events of Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien.
Famous Quotes
- "Something crawled out of here."
- "Who does surgery on a crashing ship?"
- "We're the muscle, the help, whatever. We're expendable."
- "Whoa, whoa. Hey, chill, man. We're just here to talk."
- "Protocol is to rally at the armory on one."
- "Just fight the battle that's in front of you."
Conclusion
Rashidi was the Prodigy sergeant who led his squad into the wreck of the Maginot, survived the Xenomorph in the tower and followed his soldiers to Neverland. He tried to talk Hermit out of his escape, held the line at the docks and kept fighting through the Neverland lockdown, only to watch Siberian die in the laboratory. The first season left his fate open as the hybrids claimed the island for themselves.
Appearances
- Alien: Earth - "Neverland" (2025)
- Alien: Earth - "Mr. October" (2025)
- Alien: Earth - "Observation" (2025)
- Alien: Earth - "The Fly" (2025)
- Alien: Earth - "Emergence" (2025)
- Alien: Earth - "The Real Monsters" (2025)
Tag Categories: Alien Universe Characters | Alien Earth Characters | Alien Earth Lore | Alien Lore
