Director Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus will see the youngest crew in an Alien movie yet facing off with the horrific and deadly xenomorph.
The filmmaker was looking for a unique spin for his story and one of those things is his young crew, which was inspired by a deleted scene from James Cameron’s Aliens which showed kids running around a space colony.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Alvarez talked about the young crew in his movie and offered some interesting insight.
The director explained: “My first instinct, just to try something different that hasn’t been seen before, was to approach it from the angle of characters who are not professionals or scientists; they’re not even adults.
“I liked this concept of putting people in the front seat of the story who are closer to what the audience is — not that the audience is young, more that the audience is completely virgin to the realities of space.
“When the characters are professionals, they know more than you do. But when they’re still in their early 20s, they don’t know how to operate the f—ing airlock.”
It’s also revealed that the relationship of these characters are siblings, and the title of the film is in reference to that, “with its invocation of the two mythical brothers who supposedly founded Rome.”
Alvarez goes on to talk about the history of the character, saying: “All their parents probably worked on the same ship when they were kids, and that’s how they got to know each other. There’s a lot of history between them because they’re the only family they have.”
He continued: “They truly act more like surrogate siblings; some of them even lived under the same roof. A lot of the big themes of the movie are about siblinghood and what does that mean? The Romulus of it all, and the bigger plot with Weyland-Yutani, is actually connected to that as well.”
Also, this wouldn’t be a proper Alien movie without a synthetic character on the ship. It’ explained by star Cailee Spaeny: “In this one, Rain’s brother is a synthetic. She loves him like her brother, but there are difficulties growing up with a synthetic, and some of the challenges that she faces during the film are related.
She added: “That relationship dynamic is really interesting to flip on its head; it was really fun to explore having a synthetic as a family member and the questions it poses. David Jonsson, who plays that character, was so brilliant and really nailed that performance.”
Alien: Romulus follows a “group of young people on a distant world who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”
The pitch that Alvarez initially made is said to be a “really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before.” The movie is also going to be terrifying as it leans into the horror aspect of the franchise. That’s why I’m excited!
The story is set between Ridley Scott’s Alien and Cameron’s Aliens and the same team that worked on Aliens returned to work on this movie.
The movie also stars Isabela Merced, who is also joined by Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and newcomer Aileen Wu.
Alvarez is directing from his script written by Rodo Sayagues. Ridley Scott is also a producer on the movie along with Michael Pruss (Boston Strangler) for Scott Free, with Brent O’Connor (Bullet Train), Elizabeth Cantillon (Persuasion) and Tom Moran (The Donut King) serving as executive producers.
Alien: Romulus is set to hit theaters on August 16th.
