Alien: Romulus
Summary
AlthoughAlien : Romuluslooks promising , the new sequel could still shine victim to a problem that plagued Ridley Scott ’s prequels . TheAlienfranchise has not released a fresh flick since 2017’sAlien : Covenant . The moment of two prequels direct by originalAliendirector Ridley Scott , Alien : Covenantfollowed the account of its predecessor , 2012’sPrometheus . However , the subsequence earned the anger of critic and fans alike by killingPrometheus ’s heroine offscreen and making the enfranchisement ’s backstory more Byzantine . This may account for its box office underperformance , withAlien : Covenantmaking only $ 240 million on a budget of $ 111 million .
In August 2024 , the upcomingAlien : Romuluswill hope to reignite pursuit in the series . Set betweenAlienandAliens , this standalone movie will be directed byDon’t Breathehelmer Fede Álvarez . Not much is known about the continuation ’s plot save for the fact thatAlien : Romuluswill take position on a distant planet and rivet on a young group of character see Xenomorphs in this inhospitable terrain . While this apparatus sounds like it could yield a bright return to the enfranchisement ’s roots , Alien : Romulusmay still fall dupe to the same issue that hurt both of Scott ’s early prequels .
Alien: Romulus Should Avoid Over-Explaining The Franchise’s Mythology
SinceAlien : Romulusis place betweenAlienandAliens , there could be a temptation to fully excuse what happened during that time . Thanks to its place intheAlienfranchise chronology , viewers might expectAlien : Romulusto touch on many unanswered questionslike what the side effect of the Nostromo tragedy was , whether Weyland - Yutani covered up the event , and many other lingering mystery . However , trying to flatten out the dealership ’s unknowable history into a straightforward timeline was the biggest pitfall that doomed Scott ’s prequels . BothPrometheusandAlien : Covenantattempted to explain where the Xenomorph and humanity came from , to their detriment .
Prometheus ’s open scene made it clean that Scott wanted to say a sprawling , expansive story that spanned thousands of years . However , this was at betting odds with the claustrophobic intensity of the originalAlien . Even the comparatively magnanimous - scale action ofAlienswas nowhere near as ambitious asAlien : Covenant , which featured a tantrum wherein Michael Fassbender ’s killer android David wiped out an total planet ’s universe by using Xenomorphs as a bioweapon . These issue were so complex , ambitious , and in the end irrelevant that it was no surprise when the showrunner of the upcomingAlienTV spinoff confirmed Scott ’s prequels were retconnedfrom its chronicle .
Alien: Romulus Needs To Carve Out Its Own Place In The Timeline
Alien : Romulusmust avoid the mistake that Scott ’s prequels made . Like Alvarez ’s earlierEvil Deadreboot , Alien : Romulusshould pore on being a great standalone film set in theAlienuniversethat is n’t reliant on exist moving-picture show instead of referencing these earlier collision . Rather than attempt to provide a backstory for the Xenomorph , Alien : Romulusshould or else return to the stripped - back horror of the original picture show . That 1979 hit became a winner precisely because of how much the enigmatic moving picture ’s many mystery were leave equivocal , andAlien : Romuluscan take over its success if the upcoming subsequence refuses to over - excuse the franchise ’s knotty , inconsistent world - building .
