Alien: Romulus star confirms the new movie’s timeline, and sends plot speculation into overdrive
Nov. 28, 2023Cailee Spaeny shared the details
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Hype for Fede Alvarez’s Alien movie is pretty colossal withRidley Scott already giving it high praise. Now, we finally know when it sits on the franchise’s timeline, and it’s got us speculating what this might mean for the plot of Alien: Romulus.
Cailee Spaeny, who is set to lead the new movie, gaveVarietythe details, confirming it takes place between Alien andAliens. “It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie,” she said. “They brought the same team from Aliens, the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours. So getting to see the original design with the original people who have been working on these films for 45-plus years and has been so much of their life has been really incredible.”
The first film in the franchise, Scott’s Alien was released in 1979 and takes place in 2122. It follows the crew of Nostromo who find themselves face-to-face with a xenomorph. Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), is the sole survivor of the incident and we next meet her 57 years later in James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) when she’s rescued from deep space.
The fact that Alien: Romulus takes place between these two movies and draws upon the xenomorphs from Cameron’s sequel has got fans speculating. This is especially true as we know very little about the plot of the new movie, which is billed as a standalone entry and stars Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu, alongside Spaeny.
“Makes one wonder if it’s a prequel to Aliens,” oneRedditorspeculated. “Why else use the exact same xenomorph design from Aliens when all the other films in the franchise have their own unique design?” Meanwhile, anothersuggestedit could take place in Hadley’s Hope, the research colony that first appeared in Aliens. “I know it won’t but I hope it has some nods to Alien: Isolation since it’s during that same time frame,” athird wrote.
This time frame certainly does open up a wealth of possibilities, but all we know so farfrom the first lookis that it will feature face-huggers and an airlock interior.
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I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I’ve also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.
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