“Alien: Romulus” is more or less a bonafide hit for both 20th Century Studios and Disney, earning a solid $350.7 million on a budget reportedly in the range of $80-100 million. Making it the second highest-grossing film in the franchise behind Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus from 2012 and has led most of us to suspect that director Fede Álvarez could come back to make the sequel. 20th Century’s Steve Asbell spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the state of the studio’s upcoming slate of franchise installments and confirmed to the outlet that they are in active talks with the filmmaker about tackling a sequel.
Of course, there is an expectation that “Alien: Romulus” breakout stars Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson will return to reprise their roles, given the popularity of both Rain and Andy and how the ending would sort of tee up another installment. Something Asbell alludes to while musing about the potential of making a second film with Álvarez.
“We’re working on a sequel idea now,” Asbell told THR about their current plans for the feature film side of the “Alien” franchise. “We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them, and I want to see what their story is.”
Asbell said they’d “probably” make another “AVP” movie down the line. But also briefly teased what their approach would be with any new attempt at making a new “AVP” installment, saying, “It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called ‘Alien vs. Predator’ or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with, and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.”
The last two films were contemporary Earthbound stories that stripped away the big sci-fi elements from the comics, video games, and toy lines that made the crossover property popular in the first place. Having the alien, predator, and The Colonial Marines are thrown into an off-world setting to battle it out. We’ve already mentioned some ideas of how the studio could tackle a reboot of the “AVP” franchise and ways to potentially connect it to the new “Alien” and “Predator” movies at the same time.
“Alien: Earth,” the upcoming streaming series, will debut on Hulu/Disney+ sometime in 2025 and should give fans some meaty material before this potential “Romulus” sequel is ready for audiences.
“Alien: Romulus” has turned out to be a huge shot in the arm for “Alien” franchise after being on life support when Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” failed to replicate the success of “Prometheus,” and put his third prequel movie “Alien: Awakening” (Scott had mapped out plans with screenwriter Michael Green for many more installments beyond that) into limbo for foreseeable future. The movie has a budget of $80 million (modest in comparison to other genre-focused studio tentpoles) and is set between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens,” now projected to earn an impressive $100 million-plus at the global box office and nabbing over $40 million domestically. This makes “Romulus” the second-biggest domestic opening (previously held by “Alien Vs. Predator“) for the franchise behind the $51 million “Prometheus” (Budget was $130 million) opening weekend in 2012.
Of course, this success certainly bodes well for more movies, including the potential for a “Romulus” sequel (without spoiling the film, it ends with the open-ended plausibility of a sequel). While on the red carpet promoting the film, director Fede Álvarez was asked by Deadline (See video below) about the potential for a new “Alien Vs. Predator” film project (the IP actually titled “Aliens Vs. Predator” for the video games, comic books, and other material).
Álvarez didn’t exactly reveal too many details on what he would do with the property, but he pitched the idea of co-directing the big-screen crossover with “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg.
[Laughs] I don’t know, depends on how well [“Alien: Romulus”] does and if people still want to see that. I think [it’s] maybe something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan [Tranchtenberg]. That could be something we could do…I direct one half, and he directs the other half,” the filmmaker told Deadline.
Álvarez also compared the idea to the collaborative working relationship between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez on films like “From Dusk Till Dawn” (Fede misspoke as Tarantino wrote the script and Rodriguez helmed) and “Grindhouse” (their horror double-feature). They did co-direct together on “Sin City” and “Four Rooms.”
When we consider 20th Century Studios’ recent attentiveness to these franchises, it’s really only a matter of time before they attempt another “AVP” project.
For his part, Trachtenberg is overseeing the next two installments in the “Predator” franchise, with both “Badlands” (Elle Fanning reportedly is in the mix to potentially lead it) and an untitled follow-up to “Prey.” The latter will most likely feature Naru (Amber Midthunder) being invited into a predator clan, not unlike the “AVP” comic book character Machiko Noguchi, and potentially extending her lifespan via pred-tech, allowing Naru to potentially be still alive in a futuristic setting. Giving them plausible wiggle room to add Naru to a hypothetical “AVP” reboot that could connect to “Alien: Romulus” via the yet-to-be-explored planet of Yvaga.
“Alien Vs. Predator” was released back in 2004 and had director Paul W.S. Anderson take direct cues from things like the schlock sci-fi exploitation movie “Galaxy of Terror” (Roger Corman’s “Alien” knockoff that a young James Cameron worked on at New World Pictures) and H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” (also takes place in ancient ruins hidden in Antarctica with unspeakable monsters awaken by explorers). The PG-13 movie ended up making the studio money but got ripped apart by fans and critics alike, leading to a smaller budget for the R-rated sequel “AVP: Requiem.” A sequel that felt worse than the previous film due to the small-town contemporary setting (used to save studio money on production costs) and weak/unforgettable characters.
Given the poor reception of those movies, don’t expect too much of a continuation or any direct links moving forward. Its been seen those movies take place outside of the main “Alien” franchise timeline/canon and a reason to simply reboot. A couple of integral elements were always missing from those movies, such as the return of the Colonial Marines (oddly enough, we haven’t seen them on the big screen since 1986 despite being a massive part of the “Alien” expanded universe) and a futuristic off-world setting (the Jackson’s Star Colony was a massive highlight from “Romulus”). Those might be more expensive additions but that would be sort of no-brainer if they’re going to take a third crack at this property.
While the bungled video game “Aliens: Colonial Marines” botched the single-player campaign and the game itself was buggy as hell, it did add creative variant types of Xenomorphs (just as “Aliens: Fireteam Elite” did), which really should be a huge part of a new “AVP” film. They could easily give audiences multiple different takes on the creatures, like Rhino, Burster, Spitter, Boiler, Prowler, Bull, Flying Queen, and the Alien King.
How they would get to those variants wouldn’t be all that hard, given an off-world colony would likely have established agriculture farms on the colonized planet, using a mix of animal life imported off-world (think the oxen and dog from “Alien 3”) alongside other inhabitants on an alien planet as their hosts instead of only humans. Another angle could be doing warring Xenomorph hives (A conflict between hives and red xenos introduced via the Dark Horse Comics run “Aliens: Genocide” from 1991-1992) are expansion elements that could be perfect fodder for these new movies, given the aim of each installment seems to be adding to lifecycle lore and creating different variants of the species.
In a perfect world, a new “AVP” installment could bring together “Alien: Romulus,” and whatever Trachtenberg is doing with his “Predator” movies. Instead of simply being it’s own standalone.
I also wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the ‘Alien: Romulus” box office success may boost the idea at the studio of revisiting never-made “Alien” projects like the aforementioned “Alien: Awakening” or even the twice-nixed “Alien 5” with Sigourney Weaver reprising the Ellen Ripley role. Although, the former seems a lot more realistic between the two, allowing for franchise stewards Ridey and Scott Free Productions to complete their planned prequel trilogy and potentially bring back the Engineers (Paradise wasn’t apparently their homeworld but possibly one of many of their terraformed/seeded planets inhabited by devoted humanoids that may have worshiped them as Gods) alongside Michael Fassbender’s David, Katherine Waterston’s Daniels, and Danny McBride’s Tennesse. At the end of the film, we see David now in complete control of the Covenant ship, the final two crew members, and the entire group of sleeping colonists.
20th Century Studios, FX/Hulu, and Scott Free are behind the new streaming series “Alien: Earth” from creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) and could be another puzzle piece to getting the money folks at the studio to give Scott his wish to complete his David Saga trilogy. Raising the demand and profile of a franchise launched all the way back in 1979 will be key to finding a new generation of audiences to support it.
We’ll just have to be patient to see what the studio does next with these characters and if a crossover like “AVP” or “Alien: Awakening” will ever materialize.
Fede Álvarez reveals his pitch for ‘Alien vs. Predator’ : “Maybe something that I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan (Trachtenberg)” pic.twitter.com/HmhabAXN84
In August of next year, we’re expected to get our first new “Alien” film since 2017’s “Alien: Covenant” that focused on the David and Enigeeners. We now have a really solid idea of when in the franchise’s timeline the new film takes place along with a potentially exact location as well. A new quote from the film’s star Cailee Spaeny to Variety has revealed that the new “Alien” film is set between Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and James Cameron’s “Aliens.”
“It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie,” Spaeny told Variety at the Gotham Awards. “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.”
This would seemingly confirm the film about young off-world colonists is indeed a film about the outbreak at the Weyland-Yutani colony, Hadley’s Hope, on LV-426 where a “shake and bake colony” gets overrun by an army of xenomorphs and their Queen. From the sounds of things, we don’t really need much in the way of plot details because we know that Newt ends up the sole survivor of events leading somewhat directly into “Aliens.” The team of Colonial Marines arrives to find all of the colonists, minus Newt, have either been facehugged or killed.
The fate of Hadley’s Hope (the main location of “Aliens”) was simply alluded to in the original theatrical cut of the 1986 film, but later “Special Editions” would add 30-40 minutes of deleted scenes that featured Ripley being told her daughter Amanda (the protagonist of “Alien: Isolation”) has died after being lost in space for decades and how the outbreak on LV-426 had Newt’s father as the first victim of the face huggers.
Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead”), the director, had recently talked up that his director’s cut of “Romulus” had been given the seal of approval by the extremely picky Ridley Scott, who is now one of the main stewards and producers of the franchise via Scott Free.
“Alien: Romulus” is set by 20th Century Studios for a release date of August 16, 2024.
If you weren’t already aware, 20th Century Studios and Disney are looking to reenergize the “Alien” franchise with not only a brand new mystery film called “Alien: Romulus” from director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead”) but also Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) behind an Earthbound streaming series at FX/Hulu as well that takes place before the events of the original film. It looks like things are chugging along with Fede’s film as he recently completed a director’s cut or potentially an assembly cut of the film.
Guillermo del Toro spoke with the filmmaker at The Directors Guild of America’s Latino Summit 2023 where he revealed the pressure-cooker moment when franchise producer Ridley Scott sat in a room alone to watch the director’s cut before anyone else and shared his promising impressions with Alvarez.
“I finished the director’s cut a week ago and go through the incredibly intense process of sending it Ridley Scott, who is my producer. He’s the producer of the movie. I wanted him to see it before anybody and everybody gave me the heads up that ‘Ridley’s really tough and particularly if you have something to do with his movie.’ He was really tough on ‘Blade Runner,’ which I saw as a masterpiece…He walks into the room and he did say ‘Fede what I can say? It’s fucking great.’ My family knows it was the best moments of my life to have a master like him, which I admire so much, even to watch a movie I made. The best compliment he gave was ‘The dialogue is great, you’re the writer?'”
The young cast assembled for the sci-fi horror pic includes Caliee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson, Aileen Wu, and Spike Fearn. While the film is in the post-production stage we still haven’t got our hands on an official plot synopsis for the new “Alien” film other than previous hints that it could involve an off-world colony facility
Alvarez isn’t understating Scott’s hyper-critical persona. Director Neill Blomkamp’s takeaway from his experience developing “Alien 5” only for it to go away was that Scott had likely soured on him after watching “Chappie” and potentially had the movie killed. Although, it sounds like Alvarez’s experience was very much different with his new “Alien” installment.
Interestingly enough, ILM is working on the film’s visual effects alongside Weta Workshop, which is said to be working on weapons and vehicles. The Gillis team returning to do creature effects as well.
Thankfully for fans, the sequel will be heading to theaters on August 16, 2024, after it had been previously set to become another Hulu exclusive like their well-done “Predator” prequel, “Prey.” Given that they have a director’s cut this early less than a year away from release there is some hope the studio could start releasing first-look images and even a teaser trailer in the near future.
You can watch the full conversation between del Toro and Alvarez right here.
The Alien franchise is in a really odd place these days as the theaterical IP is being mined for streaming with an Earthbound series coming from Noah Hawley and seventh feature film (not counting the the AVP installments) hailing from director Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe, The Evil Dead). The latter is ramping up production with casting in full-swing and we’ve finally got a second name attached to Alien: Romulus.
Another rising actress has been tapped for a lead role as Deadline reports that Isabela Merced (Sicario: Day of The Soldado, Madame Web, Sweet Girl) and will co-star alongside Cailee Spaeny (DEVS, Pacific Rim: Uprising). Merced isn’t a stranger to the horror genre as she was seen not too long ago in The Craft remake.
Production designer Naaman Marshall (Underwater, Mortal Kombat, Knock At The Cabin) and cinematographer Galo Olivares (Gretel & Hansel) are the main department heads on the sci-fi horror pic with more actors expected to be named in the coming weeks. We’re still waiting on concrete plot details for Alien: Romulus, where the film takes place within the Alien timeline, and when we can expect the film to drop on Hulu.
Álvarez helming the film was a bit of surprise given that current franchise producer Ridley Scott has long been trying to get a third prequel film, Alien: Awakening, off the ground as a follow-up to Alien: Covenant. At the end of that film, we saw David (Michael Fassbender) now in control of the ship along with the colonists that could be used for his xenomorph experiments. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and Tennessee (Danny McBride) had survived their horrific ordeal as they’ve been placed back into hyper-sleep. However, it remains to be seen if we’ll ever see that third project come to fruition as Scott is getting ready to shoot his Gladiator sequel starring Oscar-nominated actor Paul Mescal (Aftersun) over the summer and will likely have more film projects to focus on beyond that as the filmmaker is very busy.
The Ronin can confirm that the upcoming Alien movie from filmmaker Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, The Girl In The Spider’s Web) has hired cinematographer Galo Olivares for the next installment of the franchise. It’s been reported that actress Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising) in the lead role, although, further details have been scarce or where in the Alien timeline the pic will take place or if we’ll be seeing any established characters show up.
Olivares previously worked on Gretel & Hansel along with being part of the camera team on the Oscar-winning drama Roma from Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.
This next Alien film will certainly be an interesting experiment for 20th Century Studios, as it’ll be the first film in the franchise specifically being made as streaming exclusive for Hulu (not unlike Prey). We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Disney/20th Century will have the common sense to actually give the project a theatrical run, even if it’s only a couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Apparently, listed on IMDB the film’s production designer is said to be Naaman Marshall (Mortal Kombat, Knock At The Cabin), who previously worked on the sci-fi horror film Underwater (See trailer below) starring Kristen Stewart that seemingly took direct inspiration from films like Alien and Leviathan. However, we’re unable to confirm this new tidbit but certainly exciting as Marshall’s work on Underwater was stunning. This wouldn’t be the first time working with Álvarez as Marshall was the production designer on 2016’s Don’t Breathe, which shares the same screenwriters of Romulus.
Álvarez helming the film was a bit of surprise given that current franchise producer Ridley Scott has long been trying to get a third prequel film, Alien: Awakening, off the ground as a follow-up to Alien: Covenant. At the end of that film, we saw David (Michael Fassbender) now in control of the ship along with the colonists that could be used for his xenomorph experiments. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and Tennessee (Danny McBride) had survived their horrific ordeal as they’ve been placed back into hyper-sleep. However, it remains to be seen if we’ll ever see that third project come to fruition as Scott is getting ready to shoot his Gladiator sequel starring Oscar-nominated actor Paul Mescal (Aftersun) over the summer and will likely have more film projects to focus on beyond that as the filmmaker is very busy.
We’re still waiting on more casting information for the film alongside when we’re expected to see Alien: Romulus drop on Hulu.
THE RONIN 
