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‘Alien: Romulus’ Director Fede Álvarez Excited To Bring Sequel “Into Uncharted Waters”

The Alien mythology has continued to grow over the years, and there’s no doubt 2023’s Alien: Romulus played a huge role in fleshing that out. The film starring Caliee Spaeny (Priscilla) brought a new spin on the classic sci-fi franchise, but also paid homage to all the elements that span its legacy — from the older days of Alien and Aliens to more contemporary references like 2012’s Prometheus and the beloved Alien: Isolated video game.

For his next return trip into space, director Fede Álvarez wants to tread in a different direction. Speaking to Empire, the filmmaker expressed enthusiasm at exploring new territory instead of revisiting familiar in the sequel, with plans to follow the exploits of protagonist Rain.

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“Rodo [Sayagues, co-writer] and I are working on that right now,” he said. We’re excited about where it can go. We’ve almost checked all of the boxes of things that I want to see [in Romulus], and brought back a lot of the things I hadn’t seen in a while. Wherever we go now, we can go into uncharted waters.” 

“I think it’ll be so exciting to go with characters you know from this movie, to a place in the Alien franchise that we’ve never been before, and to discover things that you’ve never seen before,” added Álvarez.

Rain was first introduced in Alien: Romulus, set between the first two films in the long-running franchise. Alongside Spaeny, it saw David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold), Spike Fearn (Tell Me Everything), and Aileen Wu playing six young space colonists who encounter hostile creatures while scavenging a derelict space station.

The movie grossed US$350.9 million worldwide, receiving praise for its acting performances and visual and practical effects. A sequel was announced to be in the works last October, with Álvarez emphasising the need for a good story, “The mistake usually with sequels is to make them because you can, and because of the success of Romulus, we definitely can make a sequel. But I wouldn’t do it unless we have a really good idea for it, something that’s worthy of the title.”