We can never have too many Xenomorphs in our life, at least as long as we can enjoy them from the safe distance of a cinema seat. It might be the best part of 50 years since we first got creeped out aboard the Nostromo, but we’re still very excited about a new Alien movie release date on the horizon.
After all, Alien is one of the best movies of all time and the Alien timeline has continued to give us great films and not-so-great ones – yikes, Alien: Covenant – ever since. These are some of the best science fiction movies around, so franchise newbie Fede Álvarez (a master of horror, gore, and tension) has a tough act to follow. He’s bringing us Alien: Romulus. It’s a cool title, so here’s what we know so far.
What is the new Alien movie release date?
The new Alien movie, Alien: Romulus, will show up in cinemas on Friday August 16, 2024. Summer scares lie ahead!
Thankfully, Alien won’t be one of the new movies affected by the aftermath of the 2023 Hollywood strikes. The film shot between March and July in 2023, wrapping less than two weeks before members of the SAG-AFTRA union began industrial action.
Álvarez has been very busy and has already finished work on a director’s cut (via Variety), which he has shown to none other than Alien director Ridley Scott. He’s famously tough to please, but he apparently loved the movie, praising Álvarez’s dialogue and saying that overall: “It’s fucking great”.
Praise doesn’t come much bigger than that. We’re taking it as permission to get very excited indeed.
Who is in the new Alien movie cast?
The main cast of the new Alien movie will feature predominantly younger actors, setting it apart from previous installments.
You might not recognize most names, though the new cast members have each had their roles in some great movies or TV shows.
You’re likely to know lead Cailee Spaeny from Mare of Easttown and the recent Priscilla movie, Spike Fearn from The Batman and Aftersun, and Isabela Merced from Transformers: The Last Knight and Sicario 2. She has also played Dora the Explorer. After Swiper the fox, Xenomorphs are easy.
The confirmed Alien 7 cast list so far:
- Cailee Spaeny
- Isabela Merced
- David Jonsson
- Archie Renaux
- Spike Fearn
- Aileen Wu
What will happen in the new Alien movie?
Alien: Romulus will be a standalone film, focusing on a group of young people in a remote world who are forced to confront a Xenomorph.
“It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie,” Spaeny explained to Variety. So, that means during the events of the new film Ripley will be in cryostasis after escaping the Xenomorph on the Nostromo. That doesn’t tell us much, but it does mean the new film, alongside Alien and Aliens, could be watched as a trilogy.
Those are the basics: now time for some speculation, based on our expert Alien knowledge. Given the fact that the new Alien movie features a much younger cast than usual, we think this will play some role in the plot of the movie.
Perhaps these are some young pioneers who have established a colony away from the rest of human civilization. Or, maybe they’ve been in cryo-stasis and have been woken up early by an impending Alien threat. It could even be a combination of the two. That sets the stage perfectly for inexperience and disorientation: two things that make for the perfect slasher movie (in the style of Halloween, and Alien is effectively Halloween in space).
Then again, the new Alien movie could focus on something entirely different. Maybe it will swap the classic survival story for something different: maybe the young people will be the threat, hunting down the Xenomorph. That would be a wonderful inversion of the franchise’s long-established tropes. As we get closer to release, expect some concrete details to emerge.
Is there a trailer for the new Alien movie?
There’s no trailer yet for Alien 7. But, with the release date now less than a year away, one shouldn’t be too far off.
If we were to guess, we’d estimate that the first trailer for the new Alien movie will be released in February 2024. In the meantime, relive the moment when the Xenomorph first appeared in Alien with the clip below:
Where can you watch the new Alien movie?
Alien 7 will be released in theaters before eventually moving to streaming.
In fact, the film was originally intended to debut on Hulu (giving some sense of the waning box office power of the franchise), but plans were eventually changed after how impressive the movie turned out to be, and now we’ll all get to witness the Alien carnage on the big screen. Hurrah!
That’s not to say Alien is entirely a big screen franchise. Yup, there’s an Alien TV series release date on the way. Fargo creator Noah Hawley is behind the camera, so it could be something very special.
That’s everything we know so far about the new Alien movie from Fede Álvarez. For more Alien, see how Bill Paxton improvised one of Aliens’ most iconic lines and why he was genuinely worried about his character before reading our Aliens review. Or, see our picks for the best horror movies if the first Alien movie is still your favorite (it is the best).