The “Alien” franchise’s 21st century output has been something of a mixed bag, with offerings ranging from the crossover blockbuster “Alien vs. Predator” to Ridley Scott’s polarizing prequels “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant.” But the sci-fi series is set to return in a big way courtesy of an upcoming TV show from Noah Hawley and “Alien: Romulus,” a new film hailing from director Fede Alvarez and executive producer Ridley Scott.
The film, which stars Cailee Spaeny and is based on an original idea from Alvarez, takes place 20 years after the events of Scott’s original “Alien.” The movie is one of the highest profile releases on Disney and 20th Century’s strike-shortened summer movie slate.
Disney’s distribution chief Tony Chambers embraced the R-rated nature of “Deadpool & Wolverine” and quoted something he heard from Ridley Scott on his thoughts on the movie during CinemaCon: “It’s fucking great.”
“And I can confirm that as an Irishman, not only is it feckin’ great, it’s feckin’ terrifying too,” Chambers added at CinemaCon 2024.
CinemaCon was treated to several minutes of “Romulus,” in which some of the protagonists fight off some alien facehuggers, all while Cailee Spaeny’s character is locked out on the other side of a door. We also saw an alien ready to burst from one character’s chest while another woman is trapped on board an escape pod with her and the emerging monster.
While “Romulus” has been billed as something of a reboot for a franchise that has struggled to find a consistent identity in recent years, Alvarez has made it clear that he sees the project as a respectful continuation of what the previous “Alien” movies established.
“I really wanted to go back to the sheer horror of the first film, and to take those elements of thriller that ‘Aliens’ has, and ‘Alien 3’ has as well,” Alvarez said in an interview with Variety. “We went to crazy extents to keep it pure to the filmmaking techniques of the first movie. But if anybody’s worried, ‘Is it going to be too retro?’ Don’t worry, 2023 will pour through every window. There’s no way to stop the modernity of filmmaking. And from that combination of the best of the classics and the best of today, then you have something new.”
Disney will release “Alien: Romulus” in theaters on Friday, August 16. Watch the new trailer below.
