We’re super excited about the new Alien movie, and the fact that the guy who’s made some of the most unsettling, gory movies in recent years is directing it. Alien: Romulus is helmed by none other than Fede Alvarez, who made the fourth Evil Dead movie in order: 2013’s remake.
The Alien timeline is convoluted at this point, but at the franchise’s peaks, it has some of the best horror movies ever made — more on that in our Aliens review.
Romulus is the first new title under Disney‘s 20th Century Studios, and it seems the mouse wants to inject some black, gooey, life back into the series with new movies. On July 3, 2023, we got an update on the production: filming has wrapped.
The science-fiction project started shooting in March 2023 and just wrapped in Hungary after around four months of production. Romulus follows Ridley Scott‘s two entries in an envisioned trilogy, the (underrated) ‘man’s place in the stars’ nightmare Prometheus, and the cynical and cold Alien: Covenant.
The Blade Runner director reportedly wanted to close out the story with a third film, but Covenant made $240.9 million at the global box office against a $97 million budget before marketing, so plans were delayed indefinitely.
We would have liked to see Scott finish his story, and probably tie things up directly to the events of 1979’s Alien, but that’s not how the cookie crumbled. Instead, the Alien: Romulus release date will invite us back into the IP’s nerve-wracking world on August 16, 2024.
The Alien movies have had interesting titles, and Romulus has Latin roots, translating to ‘Citizen of Rome’. If you’re into Roman mythology, it may ring of Remus and Romulus, sons of a human mother and the god of war, Mars. The king ordered them killed, so they were put in a basket and into the Tiber River. But they washed up on the bank where they were found by a wolf, who went on to raise them. Little is known about the Alien: Romulus plot, but the mythology above is an intriguing starting point for a stab in the dark.
The original two Aliens are on our best movies of all time and best science-fiction movies lists, so there’s a lot to live up to. For something different, check out the new anime coming soon.