Ridley Scott's Original Xenomorph Trick Is Exactly What Alien: Romulus Needs To Save The Franchise

Summary Alien: Romulus aims to bring back the claustrophobic terror of the original Alien film by sticking to its horror roots.

The movie, set to release on August 16, will take place in the gap between Alien and Aliens.

Fede Álvarez needs to dedicate time to developing well-rounded characters to create a deeper emotional connection with the audience.

Alien: Romulus is bringing back the claustrophobic terror of Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie, but it needs to borrow something else from the first film to save the franchise. Ever since James Cameron multiplied the xenomorphs and sent a platoon of gun-toting soldiers after them in the first sequel, Aliens, the Alien franchise has slowly lost its horror roots and embraced the action-packed spectacle. With Alien: Romulus, Don’t Breathe director Fede Álvarez is promising to take the series back to its terrifying roots with another nail-biting haunted house story set in space.

Set to be released theatrically on August 16, 2024, Alien: Romulus is the first Alien movie to be produced by Disney since its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Although the exact plot details are being kept under wraps, the film is confirmed to take place in the 57-year gap between Alien and Aliens. The cast includes such up-and-coming young stars as Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, and Isabela Merced. While Alien: Romulus needs to recapture the terror of Scott’s original to succeed as a horror film, it needs to borrow another technique from Scott to truly succeed.

Related Disney's New Alien Movie Teases A Radical Xenomorph Twist That Would Change The Franchise's 44-Year History The deeper meaning of the rumored title Alien: Romulus may have already given away the biggest xenomorph twist in Disney's new Alien movie.

Alien: Romulus Shouldn't Introduce The Xenomorphs Too Early

Close

The trailer for Alien: Romulus makes the movie look like a non-stop thrill-ride. A swarm of facehuggers chase a couple of characters down a dark hallway, and a cryosleep chamber seems to have been ripped apart by an angry xenomorph. It looks like it might dive right into the action within the first few minutes to keep audiences on the edge of their seats from the opening frame to the final shot. While that might make for an eye-popping, popcorn-munching moviegoing experience, it would ultimately lack the emotional substance that made Scott’s original movie such a masterpiece.

Alien: Romulus shouldn’t introduce the xenomorph – or xenomorphs (it’s unclear if the characters will be terrorized by one alien, like the first movie, or dozens of them, like the second one) – too early in the runtime. The audience needs time to get to know the characters and invest in them emotionally before they start getting ripped to shreds by alien(s). The actors in this cast are all wonderfully talented rising stars who have rounded out lovable characters in their previous projects, but they need to be given the space to develop their characters.

Alien: Romulus was originally scheduled to be released on Hulu, but it switched to a theatrical release.

Ridley Scott's Alien Gave The Audience Plenty Of Time To Get To Know The Characters

As effective as the jump scares are, what really made Scott’s Alien movie an engaging experience was its well-developed, three-dimensional characters. Scott gave the audience plenty of time to get to know the crew of the Nostromo before a xenomorph showed up and started killing them one by one. He didn’t introduce the alien until around the halfway point. The whole first hour of the movie is dedicated to establishing the crew members and their personalities as they wake up from cryosleep, eat breakfast together, and set a course to land on a nearby foreign planet.

By the time a baby xenomorph bursts out of Kane’s chest and starts picking off the crew, the audience has come to really care about them. Lambert is shown to be a textbook worrier. Dallas is shown to be a loyal captain who values his crewmates’ lives over bureaucratic protocols. Brett is shown to be a dry-humored curmudgeon and Parker is shown to be a close friend of his who shares his knack for complaining. They feel like real human beings – they’re in space, but they’re the space equivalent of blue-collar workers – so the audience actively roots for their survival.

Alien: Romulus Needs To Dedicate Just As Much Time To Its Characters

Álvarez needs to do the same thing with the characters of Alien: Romulus. If the audience doesn’t care about the characters getting torn limb from limb by a bloodthirsty alien, then it’ll just be mindless bloodshed. It’ll be entertaining, but it won’t hit on the deeper emotional level that Scott’s timeless original Alien movie does. Jonsson’s work in Rye Lane and Spaeny’s work in Priscilla and Civil War have shown that they’re capable of delivering a performance with as much depth as Sigourney Weaver or John Hurt or Yaphet Kotto – they just need to be given the opportunity.

If Álvarez introduces the xenomorphs too early, then they’ll immediately take the spotlight. The characters’ personalities will fall by the wayside as the movie focuses purely on their survival. Alien: Romulus needs effective scares and palpable tension, but it also needs character development.