Alien Romulus Gets Terrifying Trailer and New Images Ahead of August Release

After being rumored for some time, Fede Alvarez’s upcoming addition to the Alien franchise has released its first trailer and some incredible images. Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), and Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and is bringing the franchise back to its roots in pure horror. The synopsis is as follows:

The next installment in the Alien franchise will be set between the original and the sequel, Aliens, and will be released August 16, 2024. Star David Jonsson told MovieWeb that Alien: Romulus was very, very different:

“I mean, I’m not too sure what I can say just yet, but I know that… I know that it’s very, very, very different. I think Alien was slightly before my generation, in terms of its depth and its impact at the time, but you know, we have such an incredible spin on it. And we had Fede Álvarez as our director, Ridley Scott producing it. It was incredible to work with those people, and opposite Cailee Spaeny, who is just a brilliant actress. I think it’s going to be cool. I’m very excited.”

Speaking with Variety, Spaeny offered some insight into director Fede Álvarez’s film, confirming the ongoing rumor that it will “slot” between the first and second Alien movies. See what Spaeny had to say below…

“It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie. They brought the same team from ‘Aliens,’ the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours. So getting to see the original design with the original people who have been working on these films for 45-plus years and has been so much of their life has been really incredible.”

Adding a sequel/prequel/reboot to a long-running franchise is not too unusual these days, with the likes of Superman Returns, Terminator: Dark Fate, and recent horror outing Saw X picking up after the (often acclaimed) installments and thus ignoring what came after.

So, it sounds like Alien: Romulus will follow this trend, dropping audiences in between the two best-loved outings in the series. However, this does not mean we will see appearances from the likes of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, as Alien: Romulus is expected to be a standalone story.

Spaeny most recently starred as Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, but the actress is excited to return to the world of sci-fi following her breakout role in Pacific Rim Uprising back in 2018.

“My first film was big-budget sci-fi. I feel like I’m going back to that world. And I have so much fun. I like trying to do as many different things as I can. So I swapped my high heels and my beehive for spacesuits and lots of wire work. … I love watching those old ‘70s, ‘80s action sci-fi films. And I’m such a fan of that IP and Sigourney Weaver. It’s legendary to get to be a part of it.”

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Ridley Scott Thinks Alien: Romulus Is ‘F*****G Great’

Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez, who is best known for helming the likes of horror movies Evil Dead (which was itself a re-imagining) and Don’t Breathe, has revealed how Alien director Ridley Scott feels about his take on the franchise. And it seems he utterly adored it.

“So I was like, ‘There’s no way I win this one.’ I was gonna go there and sit at a table and look at him and get it. Even if he was gonna say, ‘You destroyed my legacy,’ I wanted to be in front of him and see him in the eye. I didn’t want to get an email where it says ‘Ridley says…’ He walks into the room, and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s f*****g great.’

“For me, it was like… My family knows it was one of the best moments of my life to have a master like him, who I admired so much, to even watch a movie I made – but particularly something like this…and talk to me for an hour about what he liked about it. One of the best compliments he said was, ‘The dialogue is great. Are you the writer?’ Yes!”