Director Fede Álvarez’s latest entry in the Alien franchise, “Alien: Romulus,” initially seemed to be a return to the series’ roots. But Álvarez reveals surprising references to earlier installments, particularly “Alien: Resurrection” and “Prometheus.”
Co-written with Rodo Sayagues, the film is set between the first two films and centers on the characters discovering an abandoned space station where scientists have recovered remains of the Xenomorph from the USS Nostromo. This leads to the emergence of new Facehuggers and Xenomorphs, who begin hunting the cast.
In an interview, Álvarez explained the film’s connections to previous installments, highlighting a connection to the engineers from Prometheus. Although he didn’t initially recognize the parallels to the human-xenomorph hybrid from Resurrection until his son pointed them out to him, Álvarez consciously decided to link the film to the Prometheus mythology.
“(My son) recently watched all the Alien movies with a friend, and when the alien came out he said, ‘It’s like Resurrection.’ I hadn’t really processed it that way – but it’s true, there’s this hideousness that comes out,” he said.
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This decision was intended to bridge the gap between the prequels and the original series, with the black slime playing a central role as the source of life – and death – of the Xenomorphs.
Although Alien: Romulus was expected to abandon Ridley Scott’s prequels in favor of the original formula, Álvarez and Sayagues instead found ways to connect the films together. The black goo that plays a central role in Prometheus resurfaces as the lifeblood of the Xenomorphs, and scientists aboard Romulus attempt to recreate it in an effort to create the “perfect” human.
This ultimately leads to disastrous consequences, including the transformation of Isabella Merced’s character into a deadly Xenomorph-human hybrid. While the film offers new insight into the franchise’s lore, it also leaves questions from Scott’s prequels unanswered.
