Fede Alvarez Alien: Romulus movie will debut in cinemas, not on demand!

Its Nice to hear that, and hopefully the Cinema can recover and get back to what it once was.

Please, I hope this is a good movie. I hope this movie isn't a run of the mill/gorefest slasher movie in space using the ALIEN name.

I think its hard to say because thats Exactly what a Xenomorph does... runs around and KILLS FOLK..... the only Difference comes from Alien DC and ALIENS where it shows there main Objective is to Capture Hosts and keep them ALIVE so they can USE them to Procreate.

If you are ONLY going to Encounter a single Xenomorph or a Handful then it does depend on the Preparedness and Weapons/Training of the Humans. With Alien we never saw the Xenomorph put under Threat.. they NEVER used any Weapons for Fear of the ACID BLOOD and a Hull Breach. some had said due to how it was shown in ALIEN and ALIEN 3 that the Xenomorph should be nearly Indestructible.... now this would be a BIT SILLY if you had Numerous Xenomorphs as HOW does Humanity Cope?

With Aliens, Alien R and the AVP Movies we see the Xenomorphs can be Dispatched with NOT too much Difficulty.... leaving them to rely on Stealth, Speed and Environment.

I bring this UP in regards to the Movie as it depends on HOW TOUGH the Xenomorphs are VS the Number of Human to Xeno Ratio and what Military Training and Weapons the Humans have.

Looking at the Plot we are NOT going to be in for what would be like a ALIENS meets AVPR... maybe we would see a ALIEN/ALIEN 3 which would be a Horror/Slasher kind of Gorefest...

Sadly this is the Limitation of the Xenomorph... you have a Space Jason Voorhees as ONE kind of Scenario or a Bug Hunt/Starship Troopers in the other...

So you have to kind of FIND the Middle Ground.... and ALIEN R minus the Queen and Newborn could be that Answer, or Alien C.

Really hope this is true!

I'm all for the Starship Troopers plot, I think it fits the xenomorph

 Well if done right, the Starship Trooper angle could be interesting. I was brainstorming on how the xenomorphs could escape from being trapped on a planet.

Like the xenomorphs could make resin towers that lead into space? I doubt the xenomorphs would automatically develop wings unless its host had wings

Big Dave brings up a good point - how many different ways can we show the ferocity and indestructibility of a Xenomorph before we get bored of that same old recycled narrative? I'm hoping Romulus introduces a new angle without being too corny.

This is precisely why I'm so bummed the prequel series got shelved... the universe Ridley Scott was creating was so expensive and had so much potential. People don't want to expand their consciousness and ask difficult questions anymore, it seems they'd rather just sit and watch Space Jason Voorhees hack n slash unsuspecting humans over and over again.

Before i get into the STARSHIP TROOPERS Analogy, i think we have to FIRST look at WHAT is our Xenomorph exactly?

I can not go into what Differences the Games, Novels and Comics have shown us, so i will mainly Deal with the Movies. Which is regardless of if we are looking at a Pre-existing Organism or a Engineered/Created one.

What we really have is a Deadly and Invasive Species which seems to have the Basic Principle to Survive/Procreate, which is what Life-Forms do. In regards to the Xenomorph the Organisms require a Host, they are Parasitic. When they have used a Good Sized Host which can be between a Large Dog to a Human they will Produce a Organism that is Hostile, Large 6ft-8ft Tall (dependent on Host?) which are Deadly and Invasive, there requirement for Hosts means that SHOULD they get into a Populated Area then over time they would Exhaust the viable Hosts in that AREA which means a WIPING OUT of say any Human Population in said Area.

The Great Weakness of this Species is while they are Intelligent they have no means by themselves to LEAVE the Location they take Hold in... those Xenomorphs on LV-426 were NOT going anywhere by their own Means... if we had a Outbreak on Earth on a Isolated Island then in this case maybe they could SWIM to the Shore of other Islands/Mainland... YES... (but can they Traverse a Great Ocean?).

So what i am trying to say is that in CONTEXT to what we have seen if these Organisms are on a World/Outpost then the ONLY way they would Spread to other worlds and Outposts is if ONE should become a Stowaway or if some Humanoid Species takes or attempts to take one as a Specimen to be Transported to another World etc.

STARSHIP TROOPERS is about Humanity having to Deal with a Menace in the Form of a Insectoid Race which comprise of Various Insect/Arachnid like Organisms.

These Organisms have Organic Ships which can take them across the Galaxy and make them a Great Threat... with the XENOMORPH it seems its Restricted to Invading a single Location so if a Outbreak had happened on a Colony Planet then you would send in the Marines etc... and you would have a Xeno vs Marines like Battle like maybe in Starship Troopers, but the Xenomorph has no REAL way to leave this World.

A ALIEN Movie with this Formula would be like a ALIENS meets AVPR... or a Battle like in Starship Troopers when the Human Military go to INVADE the Home-World of the Arachnids... just with Xenomorphs.

The Problem we have is HOW MANY such Movies could you make with the Limitations of the Xenomorph?  Even if we go the Space Slasher route like ALIEN and ALIEN 3 did or to a degree Alien Covenant... again HOW MANY of such Formula can you continue to make?

The Terminator Franchise based on the Antagonist Terminators and SKYNET are more Versatile than Xenomorphs and we see that this Franchise has produced more MISS than HIT apart from the First 2 Movies... where even Nostalgia Failed to make a Great Impact.

The Alien Franchise likewise has 2 Great First Movies.... the REST is VERY much HIT/MISS to different People.  But it lacks the Versatility that say the Terminator Franchise does... plus that Franchise had the Time-Travel Plot Convenience making it EASY to pull off like Re-boots of sorts.

Ultimately while there are Limitations with the ALIEN Franchise based on the Xenomorph alone... the MAIN thing is down to having a WELL Written Story and having the Characters to PULL it off..... put its HARD WORK to do such a thing for Numerous Movies in a Franchise.

Ultimately like we get New Re-Hashes of Franchises like Evil Dead, Friday 13th and Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre they are Basically the same thing just made in a way to Re-introduce it to a New Generation..... and Essentially to go MILK the Franchise as a CASH COW....

This is HOW i see the New Movie will be i cant see it being anything much Different to what we have seen before.... and IF they make a Movie in Future with more Xenos vs Marines... then maybe this could work... but i am NOT sure you could continue to make such Formula after another.

Starship Troopers was essentially a bit of a GOOF FLICK as in it was NOT as Serious a take on a ALIENS vs Humanity as say the War of the Worlds was, but this does-not mean to say that you could make a Starship Troopers kind of MOLD of a Movie more Serious....

I Fear that the ALIEN MOVIE we could get may NOT be as Serious as ALIEN and ALIEN 3 was.... and ALIENS had a bit of Goof but it was done in the RIGHT kind of Balance..... we just have to HOPE that the New Movie does not be more like THE TERMINATOR......  so say as much Seriousness as a Power Rangers Popcorn Flick.

Chris: I agree that it's nice to see new things in the alien-universe, I just don't like the direction that they went with about David. Romulus could be a chance to do new things, I hope that they'll do so. Better characters would be nice and also new worlds. Hopefully they'll add something about the Engineers.

There were things that I enjoyed about the prequels, and things that I didn't like. The worlds were interesting, and also the Engineers. Seeing new monsters related to the Xeno was interesting, so they didn't recycle the Xeno again and again. Unfortunately it all became about David at the expense of both the human characters, and the Engineers, that's where the prequels failed… a lot.

“People don't want to expand their consciousness and ask difficult questions anymore, it seems they'd rather just sit and watch Space Jason Voorhees hack n slash unsuspecting humans over and over again.”

I don't mind those things, I just don't like how the prequels handled it. Asking questions is fine, but you can do so in different ways and the prequels failed. That should have been made through better human characters, and an expansion on the Engineers. Unfortunately it crashed so the prequels kind of buried themselves. You can deal with those questions in a movie, but they need to be handled a lot better than how the prequels did that.

So NEXT we could look at the Limitations of the Xenomorph and think HOW can we get around this?

Do you EVOLVE them?  Have we seen the SCOPE of any kind of Intelligence to form a like Civilization or are we looking at more Basic Survival Instinct and so much more like a ANT/TERMITE with Greater Intelligence but we wont see them being able to FLY our Space Ships or Build their own!

If you Evolve them to being able to Construct Ships, and have Various forms of Hybrids that have some Combat Capabilities like we see with some of the Alien Species in Starship Troopers... so we would essentially be looking at the Xenomorph in a similar way to the WARHAMMER 40K Faction the TYRANIDS... would this be a GOOD THING?

While it makes the Xenomorph more Versatile and a Bigger Threat then you do go the route of a more Comic Book/Marvel kind of Franchise which wont be too much different to Starship Troopers.  But alas its down to DISNEY and their Main Objective would be to MAKE MONEY and to Introduce the Franchise to a Younger Generation and would this YIELD a Good Movie... who knows..

I think that Ridley Scott had the RIGHT IDEAS.... before the Powers that Be wanted to bring us a Movie about the Xenomorph and to give us some Connections to its Origins...

He felt there was ONLY so much you could do with the Xenomorph, he thought he was Beyond the Curve with the Prometheus Set Up... and the Franchise should be like a Star Wars and Star Trek (i think he meant as in NOT limited to a Few Worlds and Humans, Xenos and Synthetics).... The PROBLEM was that going for a Path thats SET in the same Universe as the Xeno and Weyland-Yutani... in a attempt to make a Spin Off... some People are always going to Expect you CANT do this without the Xenomorph and so the Franchise is Shacked by the Beast.

This does not mean you cant have Xeno Movies... you can and it would be Ideal to do so, but what it meant was that you could have Expanded to other Areas of the Galaxy, other Races, Worlds, Conflicts... Time-Zones... the Prometheus Plot had opened the Door to the Franchise.... with so much SCOPE and Potential... where the Galaxy is NOT just about the Xenomorphs.

@Thoughts_Dreams

Indeed the Potential was there for Expansions... a Story that does not have to be SET in our Time-Line or ALIENS..... we could go to a place 15'000LY away some 250'000 Years in  the Past... or another Galaxy...

The Engineers Plot had allowed us to PONDER.... so as of 2000+ Years ago was the Earth the ONLY place that had Humans?  The Plot could indicate that WE had NEVER came from Earth.....

Why we could have had David and Dr Shaw go to a FAR FAR Place... one where they could have taken many Years to arrive... 100, 200? Where the events would have NO IMPACT on the Alien Franchise....

If trhey were to go more comic book, then SKIP MARVEL, they plagiarized from the more superior comic book company called Dark Horse. I feel should the Alien franchise ever go the comic book route, it should be based on the old DARK HORSE COMICS.

@Xenotaris Are you referring to the Greg Land scandal from 2020?

Dark Nebula

Not just him, the more recent Marvel's Alien comics copycatted some more material from Dark Horse's Alien Comics.

@Thoughts_Dreams, I agree I think the prequels posed a lot of great questions but lost their way on execution - more so due to Ridley Scott's personal interests and motivations and his obsession with the meaning of life and artificial intelligence. The David arch was and could have been an interesting one to conclude, but since Prometheus there were SO many more paths the series could have taken, that film is a treasure trove of potential directions.

@Big Dave, it is interesting how you mention the Alien being a localized phenomenon, they don't possess their own means of off world travel. Every time (in film) they've been present it's been by an intervention by another species, seeding them on other worlds. It's more so like the Xenomorph is like an infectious virus and Prometheus / Covenant expanded on that concept. The Alien being less of a naturally evolved organism, but more so an engineered pathogen... I really hope Romulus doesn't try to conceptualize a "Xenomorph vaccine" lol!

As for the comic angle - nothing Marvel does will ever touch Dark Horse's legacy.

Chris

It good to see a fellow Dark Horse ALIEN fan :)