Cailee Spaeny Reveals If Kirsten Dunst Gave Her Franchise Advice Ahead of Alien: Romulus

Civil War is heading to theaters this weekend, and it stars Kirsten Dunst, Nick Offerman, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, and Jesse Plemons. The movie was helmed by Alex Garland and is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 90% critics score. ComicBook.com's Kofi Outlaw gave the movie a 4 out of 5 stars, calling it Garland's "most ambitious film yet." In honor of the film's upcoming release, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with its stars about the intense subject matter. In the film, Dunst plays a renowned photojournalist, and Spaeny's character wants to follow in her footsteps. The mentor/mentee relationship they have onscreen is similar to the relationship they share in real life. 

Dunst has been thriving in Hollywood for 30 years, and she's no stranger to franchises, having played Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Spaeny is about to join another long-running franchise thanks to the upcoming film, Alien: Romulus. While chatting with Dunst and Spaeny about Civil War, we asked Spaeny if she had gotten any advice from Dunst about joining a franchise.

"We didn't talk about that," Dunst revealed. "No, I hadn't booked it when we working together," Spaeny added. 

"I was in Priscilla phase with Cailee," Dunst explains. Of course, Dunst has a long history with Priscilla's director, Sofia Coppola. "I love how [Cailee] explains it. I love when you're like, 'It's going to be the opposite of this movie.' You're going to look beautiful and you're going to be sad in the bathtub. That's what Cailee always says, and I'm like, 'Yeah.'" Dunst added with a laugh.

"It was the best thing to go to after Civil War. I just sort of ran around in nice dresses and my hair all nice," Spaeny explained. 

You can watch our interview with Dunst and Spaeny at the top of the page. 

What Is Alien: Romulus About?

With prequels like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant leaning more into the artificial intelligence angle of the franchise, this new film looks to be embracing the abject horror of the franchise's iconic monsters. The movie hits theaters on August 16th.

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. 

Civil War is set to hit theaters on April 12th.