We’re Getting Another Alien Movie And It’s Not A Sequel
The next Alien movie is a stand-alone. without Ripley. and a cast filled with young Hollywood rising stars.
The new Alien film is bursting with talent. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed an impressive young lineup for the upcoming film from Evil Dead (2013) director Fede Alvarez. Plot details are still a company secret, but the allegedly titled Alien: Romulus is expected to be a standalone adventure in the Alien universe.
On the Basis of Sex star Cailee Spaeny leads the cast in a role said to be similar to that of Sigourney Weaver’s female action-heroine Ripley in the original 1979 film. She will be joined by David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Reneaux (Shadow and Bone), and Spike Fearn (The Batman). The film is the feature debut of actress Aileen Wu. Dora and the Lost City of Gold and Transformers: The Last Knight star Isabela Merced also joins the lineup.
Alien films usually follow scientists, corporate workers, and soldiers; the young cast provides a character demographic different from the franchise’s typically grizzled professionals. The group of youngsters will encounter the Xenomorph in a far-away colony, but beyond that, little is known about the plot of the film. One thing is certain: it won’t be pretty.
Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez became popular in the United States with his Evil Dead remake, one of the bloodiest films ever made. He followed that gore fest with the tense horror thriller Don’t Breathe in 2016. The director’s talent for brutality and suspense and his Alien film will likely keep the crew members in charge of gore effects busy.
Alvarez penned the new Alien script with his longtime collaborator Rodo Sayagues. The film is poised to fall closer in line with the original Alien than perhaps any of the sequels since. Original Alien director Ridley Scott will produce the latest showdown with the Xenomorph, along with Michael Pruss, Brent O’Connor, Elizabeth Cantillon, and Tom Moran.
Since the original Alien, the franchise has multiplied to six films (eight, including the non-canonical Alien vs. Predator films). In addition to Alvarez’s impending entry, the Alien universe will expand with its first forays into television. Two series are being developed at FX and Hulu, the plots of which are as mysterious as Xenomorphs themselves. Ridley Scott is involved in all the Alien projects currently gestating.
Alvarez’s Alien film will also serve as star Cailee Spaeny’s next step toward becoming a sci-fi staple. The actress got her big break alongside Star Wars actor John Boyega in Pacific Rim: Uprising, and starred in Alex Garland’s Hulu series Devs. Spaeny is at work with the science fiction director again on A24’s Civil War.
Fede Alvarez has become one of the few Uruguayan directors to find mainstream success in the United States. The filmmaker has found success so far with his horror entries and 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web. As he takes on one of the biggest horror franchises in the business with his Alien film, the director will enter the spotlight on a new level, with all the fan scrutiny that comes with it.
Fans of Alien have waited on a new installment for years, and the new terror will finally start filming in a matter of weeks. A release date for the film has not been set, but as fans have learned, the resurgence of the Xenomorph is merely a matter of time.
