Fede Álvarez has confirmed that he will have some involvement in the development of a sequel for Alien: Romulus, but only to ensure the movie avoids a massive 33-year-old Alien franchise mistake. Alien: Romulus hit theaters in August 2024, and brought the Alien franchise back to its horror movie roots by pitting Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and synthetic Andy (David Jonsson) and their friends against a new host of xenomorphs aboard the Renaissance space station. After several years of disappointing instalments in the Alien franchise, Romulus’ success makes the franchise’s future much more exciting.
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Alien: Romulus saw Rain’s group travel to the space station Renaissance – composed of the Romulus and Remus modules – in hopes of using the station’s cryostasis chambers to survive the trip to the idyllic planet, Yvaga III, which is unaffiliated with the mega-corporation Weyland-Yutani. Things, of course, don’t go to plan when they realize the station had been under attack by alien creatures, going head-to-head with a plethora of facehuggers. Alien: Romulus garnered a hugely positive response and earned $350.9 million at the global box office – the second-highest in the Alien franchise – so there are hopes the sequel will repeat this success.
Alien: Romulus‘ Sequel Won’t Be Killing Off Rain & Andy
While speaking on a HorrorHound Weekend panel, Fede Àlvarez revealed new details about the much-anticipated sequel. “We love the characters we created so we want to make sure no one kills them right at the beginning of the next one,” Álvarez noted after revealing that he has written Alien: Romulus’ sequel. “They went and killed Hicks and Newt just like that, hey let’s not let that happen. We wrote it and made sure they stayed alive.” His comments are obviously referring to the opening moments of 1992’s Alien 3, which began with one of the franchise’s biggest mistakes.
James Cameron’s Aliens in 1986 teamed up Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) with a platoon of Colonial Marines, giving the Xenomorphs plenty of people to pick off while keeping the core group of Ripley, Newt (Carrie Henn), Hicks (Michael Biehn), and the android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) alive. While their survival in Aliens could have set up a new adventure for them, the opening montage of David Fincher’s Alien 3 swiftly killed them off, revealing a facehugger had snuck into their escape ship. Only Ripley survived, and Bishop was barely functioning, but many are still bitter about the deaths of Hicks and Newt.
Álvarez’s new comments ensure that this won’t be the case for Alien: Romulus’ sequel. At the end of the movie, most of the group was indeed dead, with the human-Xenomorph hybrid killing its mother, Kay (Isabela Merced), last of all. However, Rain and Andy survived and managed to start their journey to Yvaga III, and Álvarez’s new reveal confirms that Spaeny and Jonsson will be reprising their roles in the upcoming sequel. This means Alien 3’s mistake will be avoided, even though one major pattern from previous Alien movies will be repeated.
Fede Álvarez Isn’t Returning to Direct Alien: Romulus‘ Sequel
While Fede Álvarez has written the script for a sequel to Alien: Romulus, he has confirmed that he will not be returning to direct the movie. “I don’t think I was ever going to,” Álvarez revealed at HorrorHound Weekend. “We always knew right when we finished, this is one of those things where you come in and you do one, and get out. [James] Cameron, [David] Fincher, all those directors I love, they went and did one. Obviously, Ridley [Scott] created it; he has the right to make a bunch of them, [but] we did want to write it.”
While Ridley Scott – the Alien franchise’s creator – has directed three movies in the film series now, 1979’s Alien, 2012’s Prometheus, and 2017’s Alien: Covenant, every other director who has worked in the franchise has led only one movie. James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Fede Álvarez will have all directed only one project, though Álvarez’s returning to write Romulus’ sequel ensures the movie’s director won’t make bad choices like those that were made in Alien 3.
There has been no word yet on when Alien: Romulus’ sequel will release, but with Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth series almost at its dramatic conclusion, and with the script for the sequel having already been written, it could be within sight. What will come of Rain and Andy is yet to be seen, and with the exploration of Xenomorphs and other alien creatures on Earth in the franchise’s first TV series, the Romulus sequel could take the film series to places it’s never been. We can’t wait to hear more about Alien: Romulus’ sequel after Álvarez’s new comments.
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