Alien: Romulus Director Fede Alvarez Is Testing Franchise Fans Online

Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez is revealing some of the franchise's deep-cut Easter eggs buried in the new film's sets and props.

By Kofi Outlaw

Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez is not just hyping his new Alien movie – he's putting longtime fans of the franchise to the test! In a series of recent tweets from his official account, Alvarez revealed new behind-the-scenes looks at the Alien: Romulus set, pitching fans some pop-quizes about the Easter eggs buried in the various locations, set pieces, and props that are featured in Romulus.

For example: Alvarez posted a picture of a phone booth with the word "EMERGENCY" lit up in red at the top, asking fans, "If while watching #AlienRomulus , you see one of these (and there are many...) what do you think it means?" 

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(Photo: Fede Alvarez / 20 Century Studios)

The answer is that the Emergency phone box is an item that serves as a save point in the 2014 survival-horror video game Alien: Isolation – something that fans of the game picked up on quickly. In confirming the answer, Alvarez gave a clever statement: "Correct to everybody that said: Sh*t is about to get real." 

The interaction confirmed to fans that not only has Fede Alvarez gone to extensive lengths to explore the Alien franchise – he's also got some pretty valid gamer cred. 

Other reveals included video of a practical set of a colony location in Alien: Romulus, which featured the Easter egg of a neon sign that's a callback to the bar sign on the Hadley's Hope colony (the setting of James Cameron's Aliens). A photo of Alien: Romulus' ship The Corbelan IV, which has a panel to open the airlock that's designed exactly like the airlock Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) was dangling from while fighting the Xenomorph Queen at the end of Aliens. The photo of a computer that (apparently) is a major Easter egg for people from Uruguay, and a full model of the Corbelan IV, designed by Oscar-winning VFX designer Ian Hunter (Interstellar, First Man, Inception, Watchmen). 

Related:

What Is Alien: Romulus About? 

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(Photo: 20th Century Studios)


Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny (Civil War, 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. 

The story will be more a spinoff of the previous Alien and Aliens films and will follow a group of young space colonists, who attempt to stage a raid/heist of a space vessel in hopes of buying their way to a better life. Instead, they find out that their would-be pot of gold is a ship that's been overrun by the most terrifying life form in the universe: the Xenomorphs.  

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