Warning: Major SPOILERS lie ahead for Alien: Romulus!
Summary
Though initially presented as a back-to-basics story for the franchise, director Fede Álvarez breaks downAlien: Romulus' surprise connections toResurrectionandPrometheus. Co-written by Álvarez and frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues,Romulusis situated between the first two movies in the franchise, with the central characters going to a deserted space station whose scientists had recovered the remains of the xenomorph from theU.S.S. Nostromoin the original film. This, in turn, leads to a whole host of new facehuggers and xenomorphs being born and hunting downtheAlien: Romuluscast of characters.
During a recent interview withVarietyin honor of the movie’s release, Álvarez offered some insight intoAlien: Romulus' connections to prior installments in the franchise. While humorously admitting that theAlien: Resurrectionparallels of a human-xenomorph hybrid didn’t come to him until his son pointed it out at the premiere, he did explain that the connection toPrometheus' Engineers was a conscious decision in order to bridge the gap between the prequels and the originals, hence the hybrid’s birth. See what Álvarez explained below:
[My son] had recently watched with a buddy of his all of the Alien movies, and when the offspring comes out, he goes, “It’s like in Resurrection.” I hadn’t really processed that that way — but it’s true, it’s this abomination that comes out. [I was more focused on the mythology of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant]. I was hoping that people picked up the whole Engineer part of it. The black goo is the root of the whole thing that was introduced in Prometheus. It’s the root of all life, but also particularly the xenomorphs come out of that thing, which means it has to be inside them. It’s the xenomorphs’ semen, almost. So we thought, if it affects your DNA, and the Engineers clearly came out of the same root of life, it made complete sense to me that [the offspring of a human and a xenomorph] was going to look like that.
Alien: Romulus Finally Made True On Some Of The Prequels' Promise
Given the divisive response from franchise fans to both installments, it seemed likely thatAlien: Romuluswould be fully abandoning Ridley Scott’s prequel movies,PrometheusandAlien: Covenant, in favor of a return to the more straightforward formula of the original movies. Despite this, Álvarez and Sayagues instead finally bridged the gap between the prequels and the original films in a number of ways, the most notable being the return ofthe black goo fromPrometheus. Introduced by Ian Holm’s Rook, it’s revealed to be the lifeblood of the xenomorphs and the scientists aboard theRomuluswere attempting to synthesize it and make the “perfect” human.
Despite his death in 2020, Ian Holm was brought back to play a new synthetic human named Rook with the use of CGI, which has garnered much division from audiences.
Despite their efforts, though, not only did this actually lead to a new outbreak of facehuggers and xenomorphs, buttheAlien: Romulusendingsaw Isabella Merced’s Kay inject herself with the Prometheus strain to prevent her impending death. The strain, in turn, transforms her baby into a deadly xenomorph-human hybrid akin to the Engineers from Scott’s prequels, which quickly drained her of her blood in order to continue its growth. As Cailee Spaeny’s Rain attempts to eject the hybrid via a cargo drop, its face begins to melt, similar toPrometheus' opening sequence.
Alien: Romulus’ New Xenomorph Explained: Origin, Differences, & Future
Alien: Romulus introduces a new Xenomorph to the long-running franchise, and it’s one of the most frightening additions to the series in ages.
WithAlien: Romulusfinally offering a more concrete connection between the prequels and original movies afterCovenant’s cliffhanger ending, Álvarez and Sayagues have finally made good on much of the promise of the former movies. Though there are still plenty of unanswered questions posed by Scott inPrometheusandAlien: Covenant, namely the fates of Michael Fassbender’s David and Katherine Waterston’s Daniels, the deeper explanation behind the nature of the black goo and Weyland-Yutani’s interest in it offers some better understanding for the wider lore of the franchise.
Alien: Romulus
Cast
Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.
