Summary

• Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Alvarez, introduces a new group of characters facing off against the Xenomorphs, offering a fresh and exciting addition to the franchise.
• Alien: Romulus takes place in a previously unexplored period within the Alien timeline, making the story more intriguing and providing an opportunity to flesh out the franchise's world.
• By moving away from Scott's prequel mythology and returning to the original movie's premise, Alien: Romulus has the potential to recapture the intense and relentless horror that made Alien a classic.

While Alien: Romulus won’t be a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, there are numerous reasons why this could be a good thing for the franchise. Ridley Scott started one of the most successful franchises in sci-fi horror history when he directed Alien in 1979. The legendary director crafted a lean, terrifying horror movie from Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay, "Starbeast." Alien saw Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley evade the titular Xenomorph as the monster picked off her co-workers one at a time aboard the Nostromo. Combining the slasher movie formula of Halloween with the space setting of Star Wars, Alien proved a huge hit upon release.

Now, 2024's Alien: Romulus promises to be a return to the franchise’s original premise as the standalone movie will follow a new group of characters encountering the Xenomorph on a remote planet. Alien: Romulus will take place between Alien and Aliens, effectively ignoring Scott’s prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Ridley Scott won’t return to direct Alien: Romulus, with Fede Alvarez taking over for this sequel. While this means that the story set up by Prometheus and Alien: Covenant won’t be relevant to this new sequel, there are numerous reasons that this could be a good thing for the franchise.

9 Prometheus & Alien: Covenant Were Divisive Movies

Scott’s prequels weren’t universally loved by franchise fans

While Prometheus and Alien: Covenant undeniably made some daring choices, not all of these big swings paid off. Watching the Alien movies in order proves just how much Scott’s knotty prequel mythology dragged down the pacing of the series. The director’s expansion of the lore behind Alien’s Space Jockey and the Engineers meant that Prometheus was far slower than the original Alien, while Alien: Covenant had the opposite problem. Scott’s attempts to return to the fast-paced, horror-centric storytelling of the original movie meant that Alien: Covenant failed to explain many lingering mysteries left behind by the ending of Prometheus.

8 The Alien Movies Dropping Scott Worked Before

Aliens was one of the franchise’s best movies

The fact that Scott started the Alien franchise doesn’t mean that he is the lone artistic voice behind the series. In fact, the best Alien sequel was the first addition to the series after Scott originally left. James Cameron’s action-forward Aliens was so well-received that fans still argue over whether Alien or Aliens is better, meaning Scott leaving Alien: Romulus to a new director could save the series. The fact that Alien: Romulus is set between these two movies makes this even more likely since the sequel could find a balance between the claustrophobic horror of Alien and the large-scale, high-octane action of Aliens.

7 Alien: Romulus Explores A More Interesting Period In The Franchise Timeline

The time between Alien and Aliens has historically been ignored

Alien: Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens, making this the first time that the franchise has explored this period. Alien: Resurrection jumped far into the future to justify Ripley’s return while Scott’s prequels traveled back to the past, but Alien: Romulus acting as an interquel makes the movie's story more intriguing. ittedly, Ripley can’t return in Alien: Romulus since her character is in stasis when the movie takes place. However, the sequel could still flesh out the world of the franchise thanks to its period setting.

6 Alien: Romulus' Concept Returns To The Original Movie's Premise

Alien: Romulus could recapture Alien’s original magic

Alien: Romulus will see a group of workers come across the Xenomorph on a remote planet, a straightforward premise that harks back to the original movie’s similarly basic setup. This simple plot made Scott’s Alien great since the stakes of the story were clear from the moment the first victim died brutally in front of their colleagues. Alien: Romulus can disregard the philosophical ruminations of Scott’s prequels to bring back this relentless intensity, and the movie’s clever casting decisions will make this easier.

5 Alien: Romulus’ Cast Injects New Life Into the Franchise

A Covenant sequel would mean more returning stars

The news that Alien: Romulus will star an all-new cast of mostly rising stars makes it more exciting than another Scott prequel. An Alien: Covenant sequel would have required returning stars like Michael Fassbender, which could have made the series feel stale as it has been six years since that prequel's 2017 release. In contrast, hiring Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, and David Jonsson ensures that Alien: Covenant feels fresh and original. These stars will inject new life into the series, and the news that Weaver won’t return as Ripley makes this smart Alien: Romulus story choice all the more promising.

4 Alien: Covenant’s David Storyline Was Too Bleak To Continue

Scott’s prequels left the series with nowhere to go next

David the android was a great villain in Prometheus, but Alien: Covenant made David too powerful and left the story of Scott’s prequels with nowhere to go next. By the time Alien: Covenant ended, David had outsmarted the human heroes, killed an entire planet of Engineers, and pulled off his latest diabolical plan without a hitch. It seemed as if no one could stop him and so the series left viewers with no heroic character to root for, meaning another Alien prequel set in Scott’s timeline would have been a tiring proposal.

3 Alien: Romulus’ Lack of Stars Makes Its Story Less Predictable

The cast of the prequels made deaths easier to guess

Not only is it a good thing that Fassbender’s Alien franchise character David won’t return in Alien: Romulus, but the notion that none of the movie’s actors will be major stars means Romulus has learned an important lesson from past installments. Fassbender’s high profile made it easy to guess that he would survive Alien: Covenant, and the casting of James Franco as a minor character who was killed off before the movie's story started wasn't the shocking twist it was likely meant to be. The same year’s Life killed off Ryan Reynolds in its opening act, proving that casting A-listers solely to kill them was no longer a surprising move. As such, Alien: Romulus avoiding this formula makes who survives and who dies genuinely unpredictable.

2 Scott’s New Aliens Moved Away from The Franchise’s Main Appeal

Prometheus and Alien: Covenant’s new Xenomorphs flopped

Prometheus and Alien: Covenant devoted a lot of screen time to explaining David’s experiments with Xenomorphs, but these new monsters couldn’t hold a candle to the original monster. The Xenomorphs in Scott’s prequels weren’t scary even if they did occasionally look interesting, and their creature designs were living proof that if a villain isn’t broken, there is no need to fix it. While Alien: Resurrection’s Newborn is still the nadir of the franchise’s monster design, it is nonetheless a relief to know that Alien: Romulus will return to the original and best Xenomorph.

1 Alien: Romulus’ Director Is An Exciting New Franchise Voice

Fede Alvarez is perfectly suited to Alien: Romulus

The fact that Scott isn’t returning to direct Alien: Romulus means that Fede Alvarez can take over, and Alvarez’s horror remake legacy proves Alien is in good hands. As the director of Don’t Breathe, Alvarez proved he could turn a single-location chase movie into a thrilling, terrifying horror picture, and with Evil Dead 2013, the director showed that he could blend wild gore with effective scares and moments of pitch-black humor. Alvarez is perfect for Alien: Romulus and the director wouldn’t have gotten a chance to reboot the franchise if Scott continued the series with another prequel. As such, Alien: Romulus is considerably more exciting than an unnecessary sequel to Scott’s earlier prequels.