One of the great mysteries of the universe, especially shifting into 2024, is the future status of the “Alien” franchise after Disney absorbed the iconic sci-fi property into their vast empire following 2019’s $71 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
The two dueling projects looking to be most promising were an untitled TV series from creator and director Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”) likely destined for Hulu, and a standalone feature film project being helmed by director Fede Álvarez (“Evil Dead,” “Don’t Breathe”) tentatively tiled “Alien: Romulus.”
While we’re still waiting for an official sneak peek, teaser or trailer to drop from Disney and 20th Century Studios, there are multiple fan-made concept trailers orbiting the internet for impatient fans to ingest, and here’s one for “Romulus” that delivers the proper tone and style of the evolving “Alien” cinematic landscape.
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Created by UK-based Foxstar Media, this concept teaser stumbles a bit out of the gate by using the old 20th Century Fox logo instead of the newly minted 20th Century Studios that Disney altered after the merger. Dialing in to the brief narrative we get atmospheric shots of spaceship corridors, dire warnings broadcast to the crew, and ominous signs of a forced hatch entry before a fiery crash to the surface of a planet or moon possibly somewhere out in the remote Zeta 2 Reticuli system.
Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize old familiar footage pieced together from various sci-fi films of the last decade, especially 2012’s underrated “Prometheus” and 2017’s incoherent splatter-fest, “Alien: Covenant.”
A nice touch here is the final reveal of a ferocious multi-armed monster rising to an intimidating height to chill the blood of any inquisitive space explorer off on a routine interstellar bug hunt or relaxing cosmic adventure.
While the actual “Alien: Romulus” plot is still guarded under guarded lock and key, we do know that it’s due to take place somewhere in the 57-year narrative gap between the action of “Alien” (1979) and “Aliens” (1986) and involves fresh meat encountering a gang of lethal xenomorphs for the very first time.
20th Century Studios has listed the finished film’s cast as Cailee Spaeny (“Pacific Rim: Uprising”), Isabela Merced (“Transformers: The Last Knight”), David Jonsson (“Industry”), Archie Renaux (“Shadow and Bone”), and Spike Fearn (“Aftersun”).
“Alien: Romulus” is currently slated for theatrical release on Aug. 16, 2024.
