Recently Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg touched on how, if at all, the other projects in development while he was making his second installment within the 20th Century Studios wheelhouse affected his work. “There was a lot going on while we were making this movie. Romulus was not yet out, and I hadn’t seen it yet. And Alien Earth, I was aware of happening, but not sure where that was [going to] end up. So we decided to set ourselves well into the future,” he told IGN.
In Badlands, Elle Fanning’s Thia is indeed a Weyland-Yutani synth from the Alien franchise’s evil corporation, but the far-future setting gave Trachtenberg room to play in his own sandbox. “So all the stuff that has happened would have happened before our movie. We’re not trying to squeeze [it] in,” he explained. “[I am] also cognizant of how, in this day and age, with all the media that we have, some of it can feel like homework. And you’re going to have to remind yourself, where in a timeline does this sit between this movie and that movie? And I really do not want that to be the case with Badlands.”
And that’s such a relief if, like myself, you were thinking, “Geez, do I have to watch Alien: Romulus and all of Alien: Earth before Predator: Badlands?” to find out that’s not the case at all. But obviously if you want to do all that, go for it. Just know they’re not movies or shows set up solely with the intention to build bridges to lead up to any sort of crossover event. Just enjoy the darn Xenomorphs wreaking havoc and that Predator on the hunt.
Alien: Earth just dropped a chest-burstingly good episode ahead of next week’s finale (read io9’s recap here), but fans are just as eager to learn what’s next for the sci-fi series on the big screen. One who would know is Fede Álvarez, who helmed last year’s Alien: Romulus and is closely involved in its sequel. He’s not directing it, but he’s helping choose who does—and he co-wrote the script with a bit of important Alien history in mind.
While some fans (ahem) think Alien 3 is actually pretty entertaining, it is a universally acknowledged truth that the 1992 David Fincher-directed release does two characters from 1986’s Aliens extremely dirty.
After Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), her sorta romantic interest Hicks (Michael Biehn), her sorta adopted daughter Newt (Carrie Henn), and mangled heroic android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) escaped the dreaded LV-426, Alien 3 tells us, they end up crash-landing on a prison planet. Only Ripley survives, aside from a facehugger whose presence is necessary for Alien 3 to retain its expected creature horror.
It’s devastating not just for Ripley but also for the audience, who surely would have liked to see Hicks and Newt carry on after narrowly escaping the terrible fates met by nearly every other character in Aliens. Álvarez, who clearly has a deep love of the franchise, is well aware of this fact, and he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to the survivors of Romulus.
According to a YouTube video from Epic Film Guys Jeremy (via ComingSoon) documenting Álvarez on a panel at Cincinnati’s recent HorrorHound Weekend, the director feels fans’ specific brand of Alien 3 pain. After explaining he always intended to just direct one Alien entry, he noted:
“But we [Álvarez and his co-writer, Rodo Sayagues] did want to write it. Mostly it’s because we love the characters we created, so we want to make sure no one kills them right at the beginning of the next one… They went and killed Hicks and Newt just like that, and we were like, ‘Hey, let’s not let that happen.’ So we wrote it and made sure they stayed alive, and now we can let someone else make it.”
Good news for fans of Cailee Spaeny’s Rain and David Jonsson’s Andy, who may yet live again—and keep the Alien series streak of exploring unconventional sibling relationships (with Alien: Earth now in the mix) alive too.
After Alien: Romulus proved to be a success for 20th Century Studios, grossing $350 million globally, sequel plans were quickly announced, with its director, Fede Alvarez, thought to be returning.
Turns out that’s not entirely the case, as Too Fab reports that Alvarez will not be coming back to direct the Alien franchise follow-up feature after all. The filmmaker attended the red carpet for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood and shared, “We just finished the script, actually, for a sequel for Romulus. But I’m gonna pass the torch on this one as director,” and added, “I’m going to produce it, with Ridley Scott, we’re gonna produce it together, and we’re right now trying to find a new filmmaker to come in.”
The script for the Alien: Romulus sequel at least has Alvarez re-teaming with co-writer Rodo Sayagues, who he has long collaborated with on past features, including their Don’t Breathe series and Evil Dead (2013). The Alien franchise is currently experiencing a resurgence in the zeitgeist between Alvarez and Noah Hawley’s current FX series, Alien: Earth.
It will be interesting to see what filmmakers step up to the plate to continue Ridley Scott’s original sci-fi universe. Our only request besides more stories is for Disney to just please bring back Alien Encounter at Walt Disney World so we can have our terrifying Alien meet and greet since you can argue now the Aliens are official Disney royalty, and they can feature prominently everywhere. Hey, the Alien: Earth immersive experience at SDCC was met with a lot of love. We stan the Disney Alien Queen and its offspring’s takeover of the Disney pop culture sphere.
A year ago, Fede Alvarez brought the Alien franchise back to life with the well-received Alien: Romulus. It earned $350 million globally, and 20th Century Studios quickly put a sequel in development, with Alvarez writing and presumed to be directing.
But now the filmmaker has revealed he will not be behind the camera but rather is on the hunt for a new director to take over the franchise that stars Cailee Spaeny.
“We just finished the script, actually, for a sequel for Romulus. But I’m gonna pass the torch on this one as director,” he told TooFab Thursday at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. “I’m going to produce it, with Ridley Scott, we’re gonna produce it together, and we’re right now trying to find a new filmmaker to come in.”
He penned the script to the sequel with Romulus co-writer Rodo Sayagues.
Upon release, Alvarez told The Hollywood Reporter the team had ideas for a sequel to the movie, which ended with its two surviving lead characters heading to Yvaga.
“My philosophy is that you should never make [a sequel] in two years. You’ve got to get away. You’ve got to get the audience to really want it,” the filmmaker said at the time. “If you think about Alien and Aliens, there’s seven years between them. But we definitely have ideas about where it should go.”
Both Alien and sister property Predator have enjoyed renewed interest in recent years, thanks to Romulus and the FX series Alien: Earth, and Predator movies such as Prey and the upcoming Predator: Badlands, which arrives on Nov. 7 and stars Elle Fanning.
Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be another installment in the Alien franchise, “20th Century Studios” goes and releases Alien: Romulus. In fact, it was among the only “blockbusters” of Summer 2024 apart from Twisters and Deadpool & Wolverine (and no, Alien: Romulus still couldn’t even manage to topple the latter movie from its number one spot at the box office—such is the power of Marvel). So, in some sense, Earth was “clamoring” for a movie of this nature…being that Hollywood refuses to make anything new when it comes big-budget fare. Though they were at least “adventurous” enough to tap Fede Álvarez (known for another “quiet” movie: Don’t Breathe) as the director and Cailee Spaeny as the lead, Rain Carradine. The “Ellen Ripley replacement,” if you will.
Unlike Sigourney Weaver stepping right into Ripley’s shoes after a bit part in Annie Hall and the lesser known Madman, Spaeny actually had a few films under her belt before taking on such a weighty role—having already done so with the back-to-back release of Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Alex Garland’s Civil War. And yes, she’s been in a blockbuster before, even if it was one that landed with a thud: Pacific Rim Uprising. Later, she took a wrong turn with The Craft: Legacy in 2020 before correcting things with How It Ends the following year. In short, Spaeny has run the gamut of roles before Rain in Alien: Romulus. Which takes place two decades after the destruction the USCSS Nostromo that audiences witnessed in 1979’s Alien. The alpha and the omega of Alien movies. Which is, in part, why Álvarez is so committed to paying homage to it—in addition to remaking Ripley through Rain (another “R” name—and one that Ross Geller famously mocked when Rachel Green suggested it for their baby, replying to her with his imitation of a person with such a name: “Hi my name is Rain. I have my own kiln and my dress is made out of wheat”). Of course, everybody knows that no one can (or will) ever hold a candle to what Weaver did for the part of “leading lady” in Alien, and yet, they can try to present a new-fangled “badass” version of her. Only Rain doesn’t quite come across that way, instead exhibiting the sort of vulnerability and reluctance specific to the current generation. A generation that could never convincingly say, as Ripley does in Aliens, “I can handle myself.”
Rain’s intrinsic fear of, well, everything is revealed from the outset, when her ex-boyfriend, Tyler (Archie Renaux), has to vehemently convince her to join him and the “crew” he’s assembled to enter an abandoned ship with cryostasis chambers that will allow them to defect from the godforsaken planet they’re stuck working on in favor of Yvaga—a planet where the sun actually shines (side note: the planet they’re on has plenty of dystopian Blade Runner flair). The crew consists of Tyler’s sister, Kay (Isabel Merced), his cousin, Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Bjorn’s adopted sister, Navarro (Aileen Wu). Of course, it isn’t that they really need Rain to come along, so much as her adopted brother, Andy (David Jonsson)—who just so happens to be an android old enough to know how to interface with an abandoned spacecraft that’s of “Andy’s generation.” Or close enough for him to understand it.
Still, Tyler does a good job of sweet-talking her into getting some balls by reminding her that Weyland-Yutani is never going to let her leave no matter how much she works, having just fulfilled her contract only to be told that she’s being sent to the mines now (essentially a death warrant), informed she must remain on the planet to work for another “five to six years” before she can again be given the consideration to leave due to a shortage of workers. Thus, as usual, this installment of Alien continues to serve as an undercutting commentary about the callous exploitation of the working class by their oppressive employers. And while Rain might be “Gen Z enough” to lack the same amount of grit as Ripley in the face of adversity, she’s not Gen Z enough to demand a “flexible work schedule” and a “work-life balance” if she’s to be expected to continue working for Weyland-Yutani.
After all, one of Alien: Romulus’ key goals appears to be to maintain as much of the status quo as it can from the previous films, including pronounced “homages” (even to the less beloved Alien Resurrection, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant). Obviously favoring Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens, what with everyone still thrusting so much undue hate upon David Fincher’s Alien 3—even though it yielded one of the most iconic images from the franchise: a xenomorph up close and personal with Ripley, who turns her face away from its dripping, drooling open maw. In fact, that’s the image Álvarez borrows from for his “nod” to Alien 3—even though, in this case, it doesn’t really work because Rain isn’t pregnant with an alien queen and, thus, there’s no way the alien would take its sweet time about appraising her instead of just snapping her up in its jaws.
Elsewhere, some of the exact same lines from previous Alien movies are used as “callbacks” designed to provide “fan service,” though it often feels a bit too heavy-handed. Take, for example, Rook: the same (or a similar) model as Ash (Ian Holm, regenerated from beyond the grave) saying, “I can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies.” Or Andy echoing Bishop’s (Lance Henriksen) aphorism, “I prefer the term artificial person myself.”
Indeed, Andy gets far more venomous discrimination for being a “synthetic” than Bishop ever did—mainly from Bjorn, whose prejudice stems from an android not saving his mother from death in the mines, instructed to help twelve other miners instead by its supervisor, sacrificing the lives of two for the greater good of the dozen. It hardly makes Bjorn’s level of contempt justifiable, with the supervisor being the one to place his rage toward, if anyone.
And, speaking of rage, the perfect opportunity for it to arise (though it never quite does) within Rain comes after another cheesy callback to Aliens, when Tyler teaches her how to use a prototype of the M41A Pulse Rifle the same way Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) taught Ripley to use an actual M41A Pulse Rifle. The latter reacts with far more titillation and gusto to learning than Rain, who still comes off as an overly cautious, scared little girl about the whole thing. In part, that “little girl” vibe compared to Ripley is likely because Spaeny is twenty-six to Weaver’s thirty-seven (when filming the indelible gun scenes for 1986’s Aliens). Granted, Weaver wasn’t much older than Spaeny in Alien, filming it when she was twenty-nine. Even so, she looks older in her twenties than Spaeny does in hers—in that way that all people who were in their twenties “back then” look older than people do now (chalk it up to “healthier lifestyles.” Though mental health has ostensibly been sacrificed as a trade for physical health…).
What’s more, because of the generational divide between the first two Alien movies and the present Alien: Romulus, it’s inherent that Weaver, a product of the time when the films were made (no matter how far into the future it was intended to be), would come across as, let’s say, more tenacious and less fazed by the proverbial horrors—including the ones specific to a human-killing race of aliens. Her coolness under pressure intermingled with unflinching badassery that also exudes an impenetrable “don’t fuck with me” air is something that no Gen Zer (whether on the “geriatric” side of that age group or not) ever stood a chance at emulating, let alone recreating.
Which is why, ultimately, the hardness of Ripley (even in name alone) can’t be usurped by Rain, a moniker that radiates the kind of hippie-dippy aura the aforementioned Ross Geller was talking about. Some might argue that this is a good thing, that it’s long been time for a heroine with “softness” and delicacy anyway. That women don’t always need to imitate the roughness of men in order for their strength to be taken seriously. Sure, that might be true—but it’s not true for an Alien movie.
New players at the late-summer box office are struggling to find their footing. Holdovers Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus and It Ends With Us are easily beating new offerings on the August marquee, including suspense thriller Blink Twice and The Crow reboot. Marking Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut and starring Channing Tatum, Blink Twice looks to […]
Depending on what you think of the Alien franchise, the following statement will either sound like a huge compliment or damning with faint praise: Alien: Romulus is the third best film of the franchise by a hair.
Set between Ridley Scott’s 1979’s seminal sci-fi/horror masterpiece Alien and James Cameron’s 1986 action extravaganza Aliens, director Fede Álvarez has not only made an intensely violent and visually gorgeous Alien sequel, but also something that fits nicely between the two originals. It has some pretty glaring and, frankly, baffling flaws, but it’s pretty damn fun anyway.
Spaeny carries Romulus with effortless charisma as Rain, an orphan who, along with her “brother” Andy (played by the film-stealing David Jonsson), a synthetic human programmed to take care of her, is desperate to escape the indentured servitude the two besties find themselves in on the sunless colony of Jackson’s Star. Along with a handful of poor and desperate young miners like herself, Rain and David head to a massive, derelict Weyland-Yutani space station, the Romulus and Remus, where they hope to find cryo chambers that would allow them to escape their star system and lives of servitude. Things obviously go very poorly because this is an Alien movie.
That’s pretty much it. You’ve got six good looking young adults on a derelict space station fighting for their lives against some old-fashioned Chestbursters, Facehuggers, and Xenomorphs. The heart of the movie rests with Rain and her robot brother Andy, whose dynamic together is sweet, complicated and human.
In fact, all of the characters are compelling in different ways, making their impending, horrifically violent deaths more affecting than one really expects. Álvarez and his co-writer Rodo Sayagues do a nice job creating characters we not just root for, but find pieces of ourselves within.
What’s really counterintuitive, though, is that the aspects of the film that work the best exist right next to the aspects that don’t, but Álvarez still manages to keep everything moving so quickly and anxiously that things never threaten to fall off the rails. From the opening frame of the movie, Alien: Romulus not only feels like an Alien movie from its DNA outward, it also looks and sounds like a direct sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 original.
The tech, the design, H.R. Giger’s iconic creature design, the score, the cinematography, and the character work all feel deeply reverent to the original film and you can tell Álvarez wants his movie to play directly alongside Scott’s masterpiece.
This also leads to the film’s biggest problem: not all of the callbacks and easter eggs work very well. Nostalgia is just not a good enough reason to make a direct sequel to a beloved movie. I feel like the legacy sequels to Halloween, Exorcist, and Ghostbusters have successfully proved that there needs to be an existential purpose for them to work.
In fact, there’s a direct plot point involving a character from Alien that looks like it was done with some very subpar deepfake technology that doesn’t even come close to bridging the uncanny valley. It’s befuddling, because it would have been easy to write around this choice and it only exists to remind people of the original — but not in a good way.
With not just this, but also some directly repeated iconic lines and a third act that repeats Alien’s ending almost beat-by-beat, Álvarez’s reverence for the original weakens Romulus on a story level, while simultaneously strengthening it on a design and aesthetic one. Álvarez is a talented filmmaker and doesn’t need to rely on nostalgia to make a good movie. His Evil Dead reboot was nothing like the other ones and was stronger for it.
While Alien: Romulus doesn’t really hold a candle to Alien or Aliens, it’s still easily the most intense movie I’ve seen so far this year and held me gripped to my chair for almost the entire running time. It doesn’t exist solely for nostalgia and genuinely wants to scare entire poops from the audience.
While there are a few terrible choices throughout, the escalation of terror and the anxiety-inducing, visceral horror really keep the movie’s claws pretty deep into your spine throughout. On top of that, the genuinely disturbing practical effects and the star-making performance from Jonsson are so awesome that it’s easy to look past the film’s faults.
I’m not sure I followed exactly all of the twisty-turny plot machinations that popped up throughout the story, but I still enjoyed trying to understand them. Perhaps there are some deleted scenes that might make the story congeal a little better or if every question I have will be answered in the inevitable sequel. Basically, I think I have the definition of mixed feelings.
Alien defined a genre and Aliens is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, so holding Romulus to that standard is somewhat unfair, but Álvarez and team do enough right for me to genuinely hope we get another film in the franchise that picks up directly after this one. No matter what happens, Romulus proves there’s still plenty of (alien) life left in the franchise and that the Xenomorph is just as iconic of a slasher as Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Except with acid instead of blood.
Good or bad taste is difficult to define, but easy to point out, and Alien: Romulus, from Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez (who famously delivered a fantastic Evil Dead flick over a decade ago), offers a bizarre mix of both. It’s clear that Álvarez wants to hearken back to the analog, tactile sci-fi vibes of the original Alien flicks, with plenty of satisfyingly twisty knobs and low-fi computer screens that will delight any old-school fan. And with a great, young cast that includes Civil War’s Cailee Spaeny and The Last of Us’ Isabela Merced, Romulus feels like it’s courting both the original Alien lovers and a younger, fresher group of potential fans. And it’s fast, too—the two-hour run-time flies by without any filler, and a perfectly paced build-up results in a third act that will have your heart pumping almost the entire time.
But the massive weak point in Romulus’ hull is its reliance on winks, nods, and nostalgia—including one poor-taste cameo that made me cringe every time the character was on-screen. Though I think any casual Alien fan will enjoy the film and miss many of the Easter eggs, there are some egregious references throughout that had my eyes rolling around in my head. Nostalgia is a helluva drug.
Alien: Romulus looks damn good
Álvarez reportedly told the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con crowd that seeing Romulus didn’t require prior knowledge of other Alien films, and that “member berries cannot be the full meal” (a reference to a South Park joke about nostalgia), but I’m not so sure that’s true. From the moment Romulus opens, there are references aplenty—the opening shot shows the wreckage of the Nostromo, the ship from the first film, floating in the empty vacuum of space, for Engineer’s sake.
Though after that, Álvarez swiftly (and smartly) turns the attention to Alien: Romulus’ cast of young adults, who live and work in a dreary, depressing mining colony called Jackson’s Star where it’s always raining and everyone is always sick. Rain Carradine (Spaeny) and her “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic reprogrammed by Rain’s late father to protect her at all costs, live a life of indentured servitude—Rain is forced to work in the hopes that she’ll earn enough hours to leave Jackson’s Star and head to Yvaga II, a terraformed planet that’s less miserable.
After a Weyland-Yutani employee denies Rain’s request to go off-planet, she jumps at the chance to change her fate: A ragtag bunch of teenagers (and her friends) discover a “Weyu” ship drifting in the planet’s atmosphere, and they want to fly up and steal its crypods so they can venture out to Yvaga themselves. The problem? They need Andy, who can access all of the ship’s systems, even though his strange gait and stammer indicate that he isn’t in perfect working condition.
Image: 20th Century Studios
Andy and Rain’s relationship is the beating heart of Romulus, played to perfection by Spaeny and Jonsson—from the moment his big, sad eyes appear on screen, I know Andy is going to break my heart. Andy’s affinity for puns, which he struggles to get out due to his stammer, endears you to him within moments, and Rain’s good-natured annoyance at his bad jokes further defines their lovely relationship. Romulus tries to fill out the rest of its character tropes like previous Alien films, with a crass and rude British guy, his grim, no-nonsense partner, a kind-hearted heartthrob, and a sweet (and newly pregnant) best friend, and the young actors all play them well, even if their characters aren’t fully fleshed out. But Rain and Andy? I’d die for them.
Visually, Romulus is as close to perfect as a sci-fi horror flick can get. When the shuttle carrying the teens up to the derelict Weyu ship (which is actually a decommissioned outpost, and, as you might suspect, full of facehuggers) soars upward into the planet’s upper atmosphere, the visual effects dazzle: rain pelts the hull, lightning flashes all around it, and strange, red-orange veins of light run through the clouds. When it bursts through the cloud cover, Rain sees the planet’s sun for the first time ever, and I feel a similar stirring of awe in my gut.
Romulus truly is beautiful, from the cinematography to the set design to the way the iconic xenomorphs look. Álvarez impressively and effectively plays with color, light, and texture (wispy gray smoke, white-hot steam, tar-black blood), and the pitch-perfect mix of practical and digital effects blends iconic Alien iconography with impressive, modern tech. And then there’s the digitally recreated elephant in the room.
Romulus and references
As I mentioned, there are a lot of Easter eggs in Alien: Romulus. The decommissioned outpost (split into two massive sections called Remus and Romulus) is powered by a computer called MU/TH/UR 9000, a newer version of the one running the Nostromo in 1979’s Alien. When one of the motley crew members bullies and denigrates Andy, he stammers back a quote from Aliens, saying he prefers the term “artificial human” just like Bishop told Ripley back then. The outpost’s door mechanisms are the same ones from 2014 survival horror game Alien: Isolation. Hell, even the original xenomorph, the one Ripley blows out of the Nostromo airlock, haunts Romulus—its corpse is suspended from the ceiling in the derelict ship, its acid blood having burnt through several floors and destroyed the place.
But the most egregious Easter egg is a rotten one: a digitally recreated Ian Holm, who played a secret synthetic in the original film that was placed on the Nostromo by Weyland-Yutani to help further the company’s attempts to secure humanity’s fate in the stars by any means necessary. The digital avatar of Holm, who passed away in 2020, looks bad and uncanny almost every time it’s on screen, and the fact that the damaged robot (who goes by Rook in Romulus) is just a torso perpetually leaking the synthetic’s iconic white diagnostic fluid makes it even worse. His appearance is so bizarre and unnecessary (and so prevalent, as Rook has a ton of screen time), that it sours so much of what makes Romulus enjoyable.
Image: 20th Century Studios
From the moment Rook is introduced, I watch the rest of Romulus with my eyes narrowed suspiciously, waiting for another Easter egg to (perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not) puncture the fourth wall and boop me on the nose with a “see what I did there?” Thankfully, the cast’s incredible acting and the film’s perfectly paced action effectively distract me from my fear of another reference lurking down a dark corridor. There are several truly gruesome scenes—acid burning off fingers, a facehugger artificially pumping someone’s lungs while attached to them, the gnarly cracking of ribs and spines, and a few brand-new takes on the iconic chest bursting scene—that will delight body horror fans. And all of this action is propelled forward by Spaeny and Jonsson, the latter of whom does such an impressive 180 with his character that it leaves me speechless. Romulus also adds a bit more lore to the franchise, specifically around a certain stage in the xenomorph’s evolution, that gives Álvarez an excuse to put a giant, wet, undulating vagina in the film, just as H.R. Giger intended.
But just when I’ve forgotten about the torso of Holm lurking in a dimly lit corner, when I’ve just been delighted by a zero-G action sequence that involves floating, spiraling acid blood Rain and Andy must avoid while suspended in mid-air, when I realize that Álvarez almost perfectly times the outpost’s countdown timer until it will collide with the planet’s icy ring to the runtime of the film, Romulus comes back around to the references. The proto pulse rifles from Aliens, Rook spouting an exact quote Holm uttered in Alien, Spaeny in her cryo-undies wielding a gun just like Ripley, Andy stammering “get away from her you bitch,” a human/xeno hybrid that makes your skin crawl, a face-to-face moment just like the meme.
Thankfully, Romulus ends strong, with an emotionally powerful, deliciously disgusting final scene with a jump-scare that almost made me pee myself. I just wish that it had the confidence to stand on its own a bit more, rather than deliver nods and recycled lines on a silver platter with a wry smile. Though, whether you’re a fan of the franchise or not, I believe Alien: Romulus is worth a watch—maybe some fans will adore the references, and those who know nothing about Ridley Scott’s legendary sci-fi universe can remain blissfully unaware and just enjoy a well-paced, well-shot, well-acted romp. It’s a win-win in that regard.
Alien: Romulus has a lot to prove when it comes to drawing from the sci-fi franchise’s body of work to produce a film worth another go-around. Fortunately, the director Fede Alvarez appears to have done his homework and a bit of extra credit pulling from the series’ 2014 sleeper-hit video game as well.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, Alvarez revealed that playing Alien: Isolation while filming Don’t Breathe inspired him to make a horror film as terrifying as the atmospheric first-person horror game.
“Alien: Isolation was kind of what made me see that Alien could truly be terrifying and done well [today],” Alvarez told GamesRadar+. “That’s why, at the time, I was like, ‘Fuck, if I could do anything, I would love to do Alien and scare the audience again with that creature and those environments.’ I was playing, and realizing how terrifying Alien could be if you take it back to that tone.”
Alvarez wasn’t just inspired by Alien: Isolation’s tone, he also lifted the game’s visual clues to build suspense and dread for moviegoers. As GamesRadar+ notes, Alien: Isolation has not-so-safe save points in the form of an emergency phone. Instead of providing players safe harbor to panic-save their progress, players are instead greeted with an excruciatingly slow operating time on the phone, leaving them vulnerable to surprise Xenomorph attacks. In layman’s terms, whenever phones appear in Alien: Isolation, gamers reflexively sit forward in their chairs in fear of something untoward happening to their virtual person.
“The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone,” Alvarez said. “In the game, every time you knew there’s a phone you’d go, ‘Fuck, I’m about to go into some bad set-piece.’ It’s the same thing here. You’ll see they’re planted strategically throughout the film. When you see the phone, it’s like: brace for impact.”
If Alien: Romulus’ first reactions are anything to go off of, Alvarez knocked it out of the park by playing the series’ hits while also injecting his own flair for ominous practical effects—and gamer know-how, to boot. Alien: Romulus opens August 16.
When you don’t have star power or a massive superhero movie to show off in San Diego Comic-Con’s highly-visible Hall H, you have to get creative.
And Disney and its 20th Century Studios division did just that for its Alien: Romulus panel. A little theatrics — red strobe lights followed by a gurgling man stumbling on stage, then dying from a “chest burster” — and video questions from surprise filmmaker guests such as original Alien director Ridley Scott or filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, among others can go a long way to bolster the already strong clips that were shown.
And if that fails, then you leave them with parting gifts, in this case, rubber alien “face huggers” that were distributed to all 6,500 or so people who packed the cavernous hall of the San Diego Convention Center Friday, many of whom immediately proceeded to take selfies and post the photos to all their friends. Promotional messaging succeeded.
Romulus is the first movie to hit since 2017’s Alien: Covenant and is the first movie to be made since Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019. And while two were made in the 2010s with mixed success, those were also big-budget productions, befitting to the manner which filmmaker Ridley Scott is accustomed.
This new one was directed by Fede Álvarez, the filmmaker behind more modestly-budgeted horror movies, including his hit, Don’t Breath, and stars fresh faces and rising actors such as Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fern and Aileen Wu, all of whom were in attendance Friday, minus the latter.
Alien, of course, is not some new commodity. It’s a revered movie franchise that has had some of the best filmmakers in the director’s chairs, including Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Álvarez said he felt immense pressure in taking on the movie and was standing on the shoulders of giants. But he also said the pressure went away when he was on set, which was very practical and to him, a very real environment.
“The pressure goes away, for me, when you suddenly realize you’re on tiny Weyland (a corporation in the Alien universe) shake and bake colony and every vehicle that goes around is real and the neon sign is from Aliens,” he said. “To be on this real space…”
The cast bonded strongly during the making of the movie, which was shot chronologically. But it also meant a loss when one of them shot a death scene and left the production. And as any Alien fan knows, there is a lot of death.
“It was emotional,” Álvarez noted, “because that person now has to leave and you continued with the rest of the cast. And (the deaths) kept on happening.”
The filmmaker and cast tried to honor those who came before them and for the production, that meant going back to the original designs and even hiring crewmembers such as Shane Mahan, who worked on the alien queen in Cameron’s 1986 entry, Aliens.
Álvarez described his creative process as being tortuous, with him thinking his work stinks much of the time. He believes it pushes him to strive for better results. And that honesty won over his cast.
“We could really trust him,” said Spaeny, who starred in Priscilla and Civil War. “He wanted to do something for the fans as a fan. He was very vocal.”
The filmmaker is chasing a high from film that is elusive, even as he wants to deliver that drug to the audience.
“For me, when you sit down in the theater, the logo shows up, the lights go down, I feel that this is it. This is the one that is going to change my life,” he said. “And it’s kinda crazy because most movies are shit. Five minutes in, you go, ‘This is not going to change my life.’ But for the first five seconds, you do feel that way because it did happen to you. And we all keep looking for that moment.”
And it was the ethos he brought to his set.
“It was important that we all knew that and that we honor that,” he continued. “To give 200 percent. And these kids did that to give you the movie you deserve.”
Isabela Merced was already one of the industry’s most sought-after young actors, and then she went on an unparalleled casting streak that includes the likes of Madame Web, Alien: Romulus, Superman: Legacy and The Last of Us season two. She also has her second John Green adaptation, Turtles All the Way Down, releasing this spring, and it happens to be the performance she’s most proud of to date.
On Feb. 14, Merced returns to the big screen in SJ Clarkson’s Madame Web, as her character, Anya Corazon, is one of three future Spider-Women that Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) must protect from baddie Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) and his premonition that they’re all responsible for his eventual death. Anya’s Spider-Woman alter ego is named Araña, and due to Cassie’s clairvoyant visions, Merced, along with Johnson, Sydney Sweeney and Celeste O’Connor, had to perform multiple different versions of scenes in order to account for the potential future and reality of each sequence.
Fortunately, Clarkson approached this tangled web with subtlety and efficiency.
“[Clarkson] was very smart about not making us too conscious or aware that it was another version of the same scene,” Merced tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We could just focus on the work and not mimic the same things we did before.”
Last July, just three days before the SAG-AFTRA strike, Merced joined James Gunn’s forthcoming DCU reboot as Hawkgirl in Superman: Legacy, the first film to kick off the revamped cinematic universe. Needless to say, Merced is ecstatic about the entire enterprise, and her screen test with her fellow co-stars gave her a proper sneak peek of what to expect when the superhero pic begins production in March.
“I was directed by [Gunn] during the [screen] test for [Superman: Legacy], because I auditioned for this. I got to do [the screen test] with my other castmates, and that was really cool. It felt very professional; it was almost like a legitimate shooting day,” Merced says. “So I’ve already learned so much about his process, and this man … has the best of the best working for him.”
The Cleveland native also signed onto The Last of Us season two as Dina. She’s another teenage inhabitant of Maria (Rutina Wesley) and Tommy Miller’s (Gabriel Luna) Jackson, Wyoming community, and she soon becomes close with Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Once Merced heard that series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann were interested in meeting with her, she binge-played The Last of Us Part II in record time to be thoroughly prepared.
“I had already watched the show, and so I went to my friend’s house and I played [The Last of Us Part II] all in one weekend on the PS5. It was amazing. It did 25 hours of gameplay,” Merced shares. “It was wild, but so much fun. So I really liked the second game, but I haven’t played the first game yet.”
Merced is also starring alongside Cailee Spaeny in Fede Álvarez’s upcoming Alien: Romulus, which takes place between Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) and James Cameron’s Aliens (1986). During a recent round of reshoots, Merced and some nearby cast/crew got to watch a significant chunk of the film on Álvarez’s iPad, and one scene in particular prompted everyone but Merced to look away in horror.
“There’s a scene that I’m in, and they all had to turn away. Not one person stayed looking at that iPad because it was so disgusting,” Merced reveals. “And I was watching it like this … (Merced pretends to hold an iPad with a mesmerized look on her face.) I was so excited.”
Merced also starred in 2018’s Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and with Sicario 3 currently gaining steam, she would “absolutely” love to reprise her role as Isabel Reyes, even if it’s just for one scene with Benicio Del Toro. Soldado ends with Isabel thinking Del Toro’s Alejandro Gillick has been shot to death, before eventually being whisked away to Witness Protection by Josh Brolin’s Matt Graver.
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Merced also discusses the first time she bonded with her Madame Web co-stars, as well as the pros and cons of her Araña costume.
So there’s usually a point where co-stars first bond with each other. Fight scenes are a common answer. Was dancing to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” on top of a diner table that moment for the three of you (Merced, Sweeney, O’Connor) on Madame Web?
(Laughs.) The first moment of bonding was two weeks into it. It was my birthday, so I invited everybody [to a party]. I didn’t really expect them all to come. I don’t like to make a big deal on my birthday. I don’t really like my own birthday. I love other people’s birthdays, though. But they all showed up and it was amazing. There was an accordion player who my mom first saw on the street. There was brunch, but they also brought snacks, treats, cookies, everything. So [my co-stars] didn’t have to be there, but they showed up for me and I thought that was really sweet.
Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney) in Columbia Pictures’ Madame Web.
Sony Pictures
My second wrong guess would’ve been everyone’s first day in Spider costumes. How’d your Araña costume treat you?
Oh, it was like a glove. Honestly, it fit every curve of my body, perfectly. So it was quite comfortable. But when you put the harness on, you then put layers underneath it to protect your skin from the harness and then [more layers] over the harness to smooth it out. So that’s when it gets really tight. You train all these months for certain actions and moves that you’ve prepared, but once you put on the costume and the harness, it’s suddenly like trying to run underwater. So it’s quite hard to do the same things in the costume and harness.
For what it’s worth, I hear that bird-related superhero costumes are much more comfortable.
(Laughs.) You know what? From my experience with that production, it has been …
The three of you received a CPR lesson from Dakota Johnson’s character in a seedy motel room. If there was an emergency situation, would you trust yourself to deploy it?
Absolutely not! I can hold a beat. I can hold a rhythm. (Merced proceeds to sing the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” as CPR classes recommend performing chest compressions to the song’s tempo.) But I can’t guarantee that that person will be staying alive. Yeah, no promises there. (Laughs.) Don’t call on me, please.
You had to shoot the potential future that Cassie (Johnson) glimpses, but then you also had to shoot what actually happens due to her interference. Did things get pretty complicated on the day as you filmed multiple versions of many different scenes?
I will give credit to SJ Clarkson, the director. In the train sequence where we all get murdered for the fourth time or something, there were variations. Once we got up to the part where [Anya] is picked up and thrown, we had to do about three variations before that. So SJ would give very subtle notes and act like it’s still the same scene, but it was really another version of the same scene. Again, she was very subtle about it. So once we finished, I was like, “Oh, did we get it?” And she was like, “Yeah, we got four different versions. I’m going to edit it together later.” So she was very smart about not making us too conscious or aware that it was another version of the same scene. We could just focus on the work and not mimic the same things we did before.
You told me a few years ago that you hoped to avoid more sassy, angsty teenagers if at all possible, but Anya has a very good reason for being that way at first. Her immigration-related backstory is quite heartbreaking, and I couldn’t help but think about it through today’s lens. Did her backstory hit you pretty hard as well?
Yeah, the whole sassy, angsty teen thing, I probably said that I didn’t like it because I was that sort of character in real life at the time. I’m only 22 now, but I understand it more as I get older. I look back at my journal entries from when I was that age and I get it. The world seems so much scarier. You feel so much more vulnerable and self-conscious, and that’s what I love about understanding Anya. Yes, you have the surface-level facts about her life that are quite saddening and you can imagine she feels isolated, but then you peel it back further to the immigrant mentality. She is smart, but that’s because she has to be. She is independent, but that’s because she has to be. It doesn’t mean she wants to be. So I loved getting to know the softer side of her and taking it to something that’s more than just a sassy, angsty teen.
Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) in Columbia Pictures’ Madame Web
Sony Pictures
You’re half-Peruvian, and similar to Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Peru is a key part of this story as well. Your character even says the name of the country when Cassie tells everyone that she has to go there. Did they rewrite that scene just so you could have that meta reference to your own ancestry?
I wish I knew the answer to that question so I could give you a solid answer. I think it’s the law of attraction, honestly. I also wish I had that much control that I could be like, “Oh, it says Peru? I’m going to be in that movie.” So I think it’s just the law of attraction, but I love Peru. Apparently, I’m attracting projects that mention it, but that was an added line: “You have to go to Peru.” That was something they just added in there on the day, but I don’t think SJ was thinking that much about it. When you’re directing something, you’re just so invested in the story that you’re not aware of these things. So it’s just a really cool thing that I hope keeps happening. I even have some projects in mind that are centered in Peru, so I hope that I get to produce them at some point.
You’ve worked with the Wahlberg family a few times, and given that you shot Madame Web in Boston, did Mark offer you a list of dinner recs and all that?
I got a list from him a long time ago, and I actually referred to that list, but some of the restaurants were closed down because of the pandemic. I got the list before the pandemic. But I didn’t reach out to him. I don’t really reach out. I’m a terrible friend. I’m also a terrible daughter, especially when I’m working. I’m great when I’m not working, but when I’m working, I’m bad at keeping in touch with people. I just get so invested in my own head.
Benicio Del Toro and Isabela Merced in Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Richard Foreman, Jr.
So how was your Sicario: Day of the Soldado reunion with Benicio Del Toro not too long ago?
Oh, it was lovely. I love that man. I gave him the biggest hug and he was so sweet to me. He’s always been really sweet to me, and I admire him so much. I was just happy to see that he’s doing well.
We’ve talked before about Soldado and Josh Brolin’s tears …
(Laughs.)
As much as I love that movie, I’ve always wished that Benicio’s character reunited with your character at the very end just to relieve some of the trauma she’d endured. However, it’s still possible as Sicario 3 is gaining momentum. I know you’re busy these days, but is that a phone call you’d like to receive, even if it’s just one reunion scene?
Absolutely. I would be very open to that. We spoke about it, and obviously things change, but I think we spoke about Isabel Reyes going into the Witness Protection Program. [Writer’s Note: Brolin’s character defied his own orders and took Reyes to the U.S. to place her in WITSEC.] So I don’t know how she would be involved in another Sicario storyline unless they went out of their way to make that happen, but of course, I would love to be a part of [Sicario 3]. Soldado is still, to date, one of my favorite movies I’ve ever done, and it was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had. It was insane.
Well, I referenced it earlier, but belated congratulations on being employed by James Gunn.
Yeah, it’s awesome! (Laughs.)
You once said that you respond the most to roles that bring out a new side of yourself, and James has always been highly skilled at doing that for his actors. So is Hawkgirl going to potentially show a new side of you?
James Gunn is so creative and he has such a unique style, and whatever he touches, he always adds his own flair to it. And for that reason, I’m very excited. I was directed by him during the [screen] test for this, because I auditioned for this. I got to do [the screen test] with my other castmates, and that was really cool. It felt very professional; it was almost like a legitimate shooting day. So I’ve already learned so much about his process, and this man has such a solid team. He has the best of the best working for him, and they’ve worked together for so long that it’s only up to me to mess it up. So I hope that I can understand and take notes and continue training and just be healthy throughout it all. Then I’ll be able to give the fans the performance they deserve.
(L-R) Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced attend ELLE’s 2023 Women in Hollywood Celebration on Dec. 5.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
It’s fitting that you also joined The Last of Us, because you and Pedro Pascal are both landing every role there is to land in this town. Have you been preparing for Dina and Hawkgirl at the same time, basically?
Absolutely. I’m also working on a script that I’m trying to write, and I have to promote Turtles All the Way Down, which is coming out in the spring. But I’m so excited to meet Pedro. I met Bella Ramsey and [co-creator] Craig Mazin already. I met basically the whole Last of Us team, except for Pedro. I know Kaitlyn [Dever] from Rosaline, but I saw her in Vancouver recently. So I think this is going to be a really wonderful experience. They won all those Emmys for a reason, and it’s a really well-run, well-oiled machine. Craig is just a genius, and I really admire him for the short time I’ve known him.
Have you been playing the Last of Us Part II game on the TV that Adria Arjona gave you?
(Laughs.) Okay, I have a few things to say about that. Adria is one of the most giving people I’ve ever met. This woman gives her things away like it’s nothing, and it’s such a good quality to have. I would love to have that quality, because she doesn’t give too much importance to things. She values what’s actually valuable. So I needed a TV, because I had just bought a new apartment, and she ended up giving me her TV that she didn’t need. It’s massive. It’s such a nice TV, and it’s in my living room right now.
But TheLast of Us prep has not been done in my house. I was in a relationship where my ex had a console, and I would play video games until 4:00 am every night. So I have a very unhealthy obsession with video games, and I told myself I wouldn’t get a PS5. But when I heard this ominous call about how the [Last of Us] creators wanted to meet with me, I was like, “Okay, I have to play the game first.” I had already watched the show, and so I went to my friend’s house and I played it all in one weekend on the PS5. It was amazing. It did 25 hours of gameplay. It was wild, but so much fun. So I really liked the second game, but I haven’t played the first game yet. Only the second.
Your list of conquests continues with Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus later this summer. Is it basically a two-hander between you and Cailee Spaeny?
It ends up being a little bit complicated, obviously, as all Alien movies do, however, yeah, you’ll see us together at times. When we were doing reshoots, Fede Álvarez gave me the iPad where he watches playback, and he had the movie pulled up. So I told him I wanted to see parts of it, and he showed it to me. I was the one holding the iPad, and there were ten people around me watching it on the iPad. So there’s a scene that I’m in, and they all had to turn away. Not one person stayed looking at that iPad because it was so disgusting. And I was watching it like this … (Merced pretends to hold an iPad with a mesmerized look on her face.) I was so excited. (Laughs.) I love sci-fi, I do. So he let me watch half the movie on the iPad. I said [to Fede], “If the iPad is heavy, I can carry it for you. I can hold it.” (Laughs.) So I’m really, really excited for that one. Again, I’m lucky enough to be a part of these projects with the best of the best. I can’t believe it. I’m so in shock, and I don’t know when I’m going to wake up.
Lastly, you touched on it earlier, but your second John Green adaptation, Turtles All the Way Down, releases this spring. I was shocked to read this, but was that really the first time you were proud of your acting? Or were you just exaggerating?
I actually don’t think I was. To be honest, there’s a lot of components about movies that are out of your control. For example, you do 45 takes of something, and it’s edited together in a certain way where you’re like, “I don’t think these moods match from one line to the other. I don’t think there was a proper escalation.” So it could be things like that, and when I watch my movies for the first time, I do find myself grabbing onto my seat and clenching my jaw. So I do have a hard time watching myself, but Turtles All the Way Down, I don’t know if it’s personal growth or working on my self-worth, but I didn’t clench up at all while watching it. I felt at ease watching it, and maybe that’s because I knew how much work I put into it and how I felt after each shooting day. So I do feel really proud of myself for that.
