While scavenging a derelict space station, a group of young space colonisers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. 

Alien: Romulus, the seventh instalment in the Alien franchise, returns it its roots with director Fede Álvarez at its helm. 

Álvarez, who previously directed the feature films Evil Dead (2013), Don’t Breathe (2016) and The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018), not only directs but also co-wrote the screenplay and he has set the story between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986).

The Uruguayan director has warned that his film is going to be a “pretty intense ride” and wants to provide our audiences with a similar experience that the Ridley Scott’s original film gave, which was a “horrifying, terrifying experience.” 

A diehard horror fan, Álvarez wanted to embrace a standalone story which included younger characters, which leads us to the cast of Alien: Romulus, including Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine, Isabela Merced as Kay, Aileen Wu as Navarro, David Jonsson as Andy, Archie Renaux as Tyler and Spike Fearn as Bjorn.

Cailee Spaeny was previously seen as the title character in Sofia Coppola’s biopic of Priscilla Presley, Priscilla (2023) and Alex Garland’s dystopian thriller Civil War (2024). The young actor spoke of her delight of actually working with psychical effects and eschewing green screen and acting opposite tennis balls With puppeteers actually working the face huggers, it was, she said “nice to bring it back”. Acting opposite the creatures, literally in her face, saw the hairs on her neck stand up, so terrifying were they.

Álvarez is certainly a fan of psychical effects, saying “If it can be done practical, it will be done practical”.

So why Romulus? Álvarez told fans at Comic-Con “because it’s a story of siblinghood. One of the things I wanted to explore not seen in the original movies are the real human connections among all the characters. This is the first time you have really close people that really love each other, so when sh*t like this happens, it makes it much more dramatic – being someone’s sibling – would you die for your brother or sister, or leave them behind?”

Oh, one thing we have learned, a little Easter Egg, which eagle eyed fans may want to be alert to. Want to know the date that Alien: Romulus takes place? Here you go!

“There's a date, actually. When you watch the movie, pay attention, there's a screen that pops up, there's a date and a year. That's the only chance you have. If you miss that screen in the beginning, you miss what year it is," Alvarez revealed.

"It makes sense for the story and it was my way to make sure the technology could have the style of Alien and there would be newer technology that you could see how that will eventually, in a few years, become the technology of Aliens."

Strap yourself in for a thrill ride when Alien: Romulus hits our big screens from August 16.