Alien: Romulus is confirmed to be getting a sequel film, with director Fede Álvarez returning to helm it. The sequel was announced by 20th Century Studios head Steve Asbell, who just did a length feature article detailing how he’s rebooting some of the studio’s biggest franchise IPs into modern-day success stories – including the Alien and Predator franchises, which have both made big turnarounds in the last few years with the releases of Prey and Alien: Romulus (respectively). Now that the franchise fires have been rekindled, Asbell and co. are pouring on the gas, wasting no time with the next Alien movie:
“We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on,” Asbell revealed to THR. “The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, ‘Wow, where do people want to see them go next?’ We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.”
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This announcement comes on the heels of Alien: Romulus hitting digital platforms, as well as the release of the Alien: Romulus #1 prequel comic from Marvel, which fills in crucial story points about the Romulus/Remus space station disaster, that set up the events of the film. The lane that Álvarez has carved out in the Alien mythology has quickly been widening, not to mention snaking back to connect to previous Alien movies. Rain (Spaeny) and her synthetic “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) escaped Romulus station and the hybrid “Offspring” creature and entered cryostasis on their way to a plush wilderness colony.
But, as we know in the Alien franchise, such journeys almost never end up at the intended destination – and that cryo-slumber either never stays peaceful for long, or lasts way too long. It’ll be interesting to see which version of the story Álvarez chooses to go with, as it will determine whether the Alien: Romulus series still plays as an interquel in the years between Alien (1979) and Aliens – or if it jumps forward to a new time period for the franchise to play in.
Alien: Romulus is available on digital. It’s streaming release date is projected for sometime in November.