Alien: Romulus Director Reveals the Aliens Deleted Scene That Inspired the Spinoff

The six films in the proper Alien franchise all take place in the same timeline, with the first four films all focusing on Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and the two prequel films setting the stage for those adventures. With the upcoming Alien: Romulus, director Fede Álvarez is pivoting away from the exploits of Ripley, though he recently described how it was a deleted scene from James Cameron’s Aliens that ignited the events of the new film’s storyline, with that scene showing a group of young colonists growing up on the Weyland-Yutani base that would become overrun by xenomorphs. This sequence is why Álvarez wanted to see how young colonists would handle the monstrous threat in Alien: Romulus, which hits theaters on August 16th.

“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,” Álvarez explained to Entertainment Weekly. “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-cking airlock.” 

He continued, “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. 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.”

Especially in Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and the original Alien, humans are a bit distrustful of synthetic characters, while Bishop in Aliens became a major hero for human characters. Star Cailee Spaeny confirmed that synthetics are viewed a bit differently in Romulus, with a human character even embracing a synthetic as a sibling.

“In this one, Rain’s brother is a synthetic,” Spaeny detailed to the outlet. “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. 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.”  

The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful Alien franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. 

The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), Aileen Wu. Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. 

Alien: Romulus is produced by Ridley Scott (Napoleon), who directed the original Alien and produced and directed the series’ entries Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Michael Pruss (Boston Strangler), and Walter Hill (Alien), with Fede Álvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon (Charlie’s Angels), Brent O’Connor (Bullet Train), and Tom Moran (Unstoppable) serving as executive producers.    

Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16th.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!