Alien: Romulus Reveals First Look For Alien Day
Alien director Fede Alvarez wished his social media fan base a "Happy Alien Day" and posted a photo of what appears to be a set from the new Alien: Romulus movie.
With the recent launch test of Elon Musk’s SpaceX starship Voyager, space exploration is on many people’s minds. One science fiction film franchise that has become synonymous with space exploration is the Alien franchise. According to a recent post from director Fede Alvarez, he will be exploring new parts of the Alien franchise in the upcoming film Alien: Romulus.
The post comes from film director Fede Alvarez’s Twitter account. He recently posted an image of a director’s cue card in the grasp of an alien claw. On it is written “Happy Alien Day,” and in the background is the set of a spacecraft, possibly one being used in the upcoming Alien: Romulus film.
The Tweet commemorates today’s celebration of World Alien Day and gives fans one of the first peaks into the production process of Alien: Romulus which began filming in Budapest earlier in March. First celebrated back in 2016, celebrants chose 4/26 in reference to the designation of the moon in Ridley Scott’s original Alien film in 1979 and as a tribute to late Swiss artist H.R. Giger whose design work on the iconic creature garnered him an Academy Award.
As the name suggests, Alien: Romulus is rumored to take place on the Xenomorph’s home planet of Romulus and explore the origins of the dangerous species. The new installment is said to focus on an eclectic group of young people in a fight for their lives against a Xenomorph on a distant colony.
Alvares is known for using younger actors in his films, and the cast announcements so far for Alien: Romulus confirm this trend, with most of the actors in their 20s. The confirmed cast list includes young actors like Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, and Isabela Merced. There has also been speculation that the cast will be a mix of returning and new actors, and franchise lead Sigourney Weaver has expressed interest in reprising her role in the new film fresh off her starring role in Avatar: The Way of Water.
Ridley Scott’s original Alien film starred Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto, and is often thought of as one of the best films in the science fiction genre. The original film was known for blending elements of the science fiction genre with horror, including controversial graphic violence and an infamous scene that will go down in the annals of science fiction as one of the most iconic body horror scenes within the genre. The movie was critically and commercially successful, winning an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and has since been ranked by Empire as the 33rd greatest film of all time.
The film’s success gave birth to a franchise that includes titles like 1986’s Aliens, Alien 3 in 1992, 2012’s Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant in 2017. There have been numerous video games, comic books, and novels spawned from the franchise, as well as a crossover with the Predator franchise in 2004’s Alien vs. Predator. Fans are glad to have something to celebrate this World Alien Day, and are hoping for more information about Alien: Romulus as production continues.
