New Alien: Romulus Featurette Goes Behind the Scenes of Monstrous Practical Effects

Alien: Romulus opens in theaters next week and now, a new featurette is taking viewers behind the scenes of the eagerly anticipated film and giving fans a look and some insights on the monstrous practical effects that make up the latest entry in the Alien franchise. Shared by FilMonger on YouTube, the 12-minute video takes viewers into the film’s practical-effects — which includes the very detailed sets and terrifying monsters and creatures, like the xenomorph. You can check it out for yourself below.

“These sets really help with the acting, because you’re really just reacting to what’s in front of you,” star Cailee Spaeny says in the video. “And they’re absolutely incredible and massive and so immersive. So, every single set I’ve been on is impressive. It’s such a gift to be filming on sets like this and also to be filming chronologically. It does a lot of the work for you.”

Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and 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. 

What is Alien: Romulus About?

Alien: Romulus will see a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. Álvarez has previously explained a deleted scene from James Cameron’s Aliens, which featured young colonists, inspired Romulus’ story.

“My first instinct, just to try something different that hasn’t been seen before, was to approach it form the angle of characters who are not professionals or scientists; they’re not even adults,” he said. “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.”

Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16th.