Alien: Romulus is the next film in the Alien cinematic universe directed this time by Fede Alvarez. Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus takes the franchise back to its roots with a film that bridges the gap between Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron's iconic sequel.
This page contains SPOILER FREE information about Alien: Romulus.
About Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus is the seventh Alien film in the canonical timeline. Taking place after Alien and before Aliens, the film contains subtle references to the Alien prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant and helps to explain connections between Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron's sequel from 1986.
The film introduces us to a band of young colonists eager to improve their quality of living. They embark on a mission to an abandoned Weyland-Yutani space station in hopes of harvesting profitable technology but when they investigate the station they uncover a horrifying truth and unleash a deadly assortment of parasitic organisms.
When does Alien: Romulus take place?
In March, 2024 we learned that Alien: Romulus takes place 20 years after the events of Ridley Scott's original Alien (1979). This places Alien: Romulus in the year 2142.
What does Romulus mean?
The title for the film is reference to the Weyland-Yutani space station the film takes place on. The entire facility is called the Renaissance station and its facility is split into two sections - the Remus and the Romulus. The Remus is an older part of the facility, designed much like the retro aesthetic of Alien and the Romulus is a newer part of the facility and shares more visual aesthetics to that of those seen in Aliens.
The history of Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus began as an idea director Fede Alvarez had back in 2016 around the time Alien: Covenant was in production. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alvarez explained how he proposed the idea for Alien: Romulus to Ridley Scott's production company Scot Free around the time he finished Don't Breathe. Below is an excerpt from that interview:
Right after Don’t Breathe, I had a meeting at Scott Free, Ridley’s company, and I think they were about to start doing Alien: Covenant. And I mentioned something that I would love to see. I said, “I hope this movie has some of this and that and this.” And he was like, “Oh, that’s interesting. What would you do with it?” No one was actually asking me [to pitch], believe me; it was more that they were intrigued about what I wanted to see as a fan. And I was like, “I think you guys should do this and approach it this way, and maybe it’s about that.” And suddenly, I was pitching, but I was not really being asked to do it. So that stayed in the air there somehow, and then a couple of years later, Ridley remembered that. He knew about it. He was like, “Fede had pitched this thing.” So they called me back and said, “Hey, remember that story you mentioned? Do you want to write it and direct it?” And I was like, “Fuck yeah!” And here we are.
It was announced in March of 2022 that a new Alien film had entered production and in November of 2022 the film's lead actress Cailee Spaeny was announced. By December 21st, 2022 the film's official title was revealed and filming on Alien: Romulus began in early 2023. Filming officially wrapped in July of 2023.
Alien: Romulus VFX
One really interesting and exciting detail about Romulus is the film's preference for physical props, suitmation and practical visual effects. In March of 2024 we learned that the original visual effects team who worked on James Cameron's Aliens had been hired to work on Alien: Romulus as well.
During another conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Fede explained his preference for practical effects over green screens and how they brought the same VFX team from Aliens back to provide their talents to give Romulus an old-school feel:
For the creatures, we brought in all the guys from Aliens. They were in their early twenties when they made Aliens, and they were a part of Stan Winston’s [special effects] team. And now we had them at the top of their game. They have their own shops, and so we brought them all together to work on all the creatures, because we went with all animatronics and puppets at every level. I even got the chance to be under the table with them, puppeteering all these animatronics.
I have this obsession with no green screens, so we built every creature and set. Everything had to be built so we were really living and breathing in these spaces. But I’m not an anti-CG guy. I got the chance to do Evil Dead, because I had made this short movie called Panic Attack! with a couple of friends and we did all the CG. So I come from a background where I know how to build the effects myself. I still do VFX shots in my movies to this day. I’ll cut and do VFX shots on my computer, sometimes. So it’s just whatever is best for the shot, and when it comes to face-to-face encounters and moments with creatures, nothing beats the real thing.
Alien: Romulus Creature Designers
Alien: Romulus benefits from an impressive lineup of talented concept artists who lent their talents to bring the Xenomorphs, Facehuggers, Chestbursters and more to life once again for the silver screen. Below are a list of the currently known concept artists who contributed their talents to Romulus (taken from this forum topic):
- Dane Hallett (Alien: Covenant / Mortal Kombat)
- Col Price (Dune: Part Two / Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes)
- Nick Stath (Love Death & Robots)
- Gus Mndonca (Star Wars / Star Trek / Halo)
- Matthew Savage (Prometheus / The Martian)
- Alex Nice (Kenobi / Black Adam)
- Joshua Viers (Tron: Ares / 65)
- Pablo Dominguez (Jurassic World: Dominion / Kenobi)
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