Comic-Con 2024: Alien: Romulus Panel Recap

We’re a few weeks away from the debut of Alien: Romulus, the latest film in the storied sci-fi and horror franchise. The film’s cast and crew arrived to San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H on Friday to preview the film and share exclusive glimpses at footage from the project. Here were the biggest highlights from Alien: Romulus‘ Hall H panel!

New footage is shown of the planet and Andy, a synthetic who starts malfunctioning. The group goes into a lab to try to find parts to replace him and are attacked by a Facehugger in the water. They fight it off, including with a taser, and narrowly escape the bay and into the next room. Before the door can fully shut, a swarm of facehuggers escape into the hallway and begin attacking.

The cast and director Fede Alvarez are introduced by moderator Tiffany Smith. Alvarez confirms the film is set between Alien and Aliens and is accessible enough to not need to have seen the previous movies. He argues that the connections to the franchise can’t be the only draw. He wanted a cast of fresh faces. He teases that anything can die across the story, just like how Ripley became the surprise protagonist of the first movie.

Spaeny was drawn to the project because of Alvarez but thought she had bombed her audition. There was a priority for as many practical effects as possible.

Jonsson was honored to join such an iconic franchise. He found it challenging to play a synthetic, but thought it was an amazing journey.

Merced highlights the cast and the experience they went through together in Budapest.

Renaux found it surreal to be part of the project and says he will carry the project with him for the rest of his life.

Fearn talks about how practical the shoot was, compared to the jobs with a tennis ball.

Alvarez felt the pressure of the franchise go away when he physically stepped onto the set. The film was shot chronologically.

The cast tried to focus on making the best movie possible, as opposed to worrying about joining a franchise. Alvarez argues that if you care, fans will appreciate it. He says that “most movies are sh-t”, but he loves the high of a movie starting and having high expectations for it. He says the cast went above and beyond to execute it. Dealing with the practical facehuggers caused some complications on set and led to a lot of takes. Spaeny periodically told him that takes weren’t “good enough” and needed to be done again.

A second clip is played, which Alvarez says is cut differently than what’s in the film. As an escape pod tries to disengage from the ship, a crew member named Navarro begins to die from the chestburster. After telling her crew mate not to let her die, she dies and the pod begins to crash into the main ship.

They used nine puppeteers and a fake body to bring it to life

Ridley Scott asks a question via video message: what elements is Alvarez adding to the franchise? Alvarez says it’s called “Romulus” because it’s about siblinghood and connection and whether or not you would die for your sibling. He says beyond that, explaining what the movie is thematically about would ruin it.

Spaeny and Jonsson talk about how easy it was forming their dynamic.

A second video question plays from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg: would the Alien or the Predator win in a fight? The cast is biased towards the Xenomorph.

A third video question comes from Guillermo del Toro: how does it feel to bring an iconic design to life again? Alvarez says it was a massive responsibility that led him to the original design and the books and hiring the original crew members who worked on Aliens. Alvarez thinks every movie he makes is going to be unwatchable, until it is embraced by the audience.

The cast could fully trust Alvarez to communicate his vision. There was a constant conversation about the character motivations and methods of filming. They would film scenes without the written dialogue just to see if it was better.

A fourth video question plays from Scott again: rank all the Alien films. Alvarez argues the first one is the best one, and AvP: Requiem is the worst, with the rest falling in the middle based on personal preference. He still thinks all of them were a great time in the theater and a great conversation starter with his movie-loving friends.

Jonsson teases that, as a synthetic, he has interesting scenes with the facehugger. One of them attached to his retina on set, and he needed to get stitches.

Alvarez was traumatized by the “they’re inside the room” scene in Aliens. Merced says she lost herself in Romulus’ world, which made it easier as an actor. Alvarez keeps having nightmares about being attacked by facehuggers. The lights suddenly go off and facehugger puppets swarm the panel, and a man pretends to be killed by a chestburster.

A third clip plays of Merced’s character trying to outrun a Xenomorph. It then segues into the new IMAX trailer.