Back in November 2023, star Cailee Spaeny revealed that the new movie takes place between Alien and Aliens. She wasn’t wrong, but director and co-writer Fede Álvarez has clarified exactly when Alien: Romulus is set.
“It was mostly something that made sense for a premise, that it needed to take place a few years after the first one. I don’t know why I keep hearing that, maybe because I said it, that it takes place between 1 and 2,” he said at an exclusive preview event on Monday (June 17) which Digital Spy attended.
“It’s true, but I see it more as it takes place after 1, which means the same… It’s kind of the child of both movies combined visually, aesthetically and story-wise.”
Álvarez added that the movie takes place roughly 20 years after Alien, which would be roughly 37 years before Ripley is rescued from her escape shuttle at the start of Aliens.
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“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,” Álvarez 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.”
Almost feels like the writer’s realising in real time that it was a mistake to not be more clear about this.
Which I say as someone totally ready for a film that is a shameless “cover” or “redux” of alien/aliens without caring too much about how much it makes sense or moves the franchise “forward”.
Doesn’t mean that we don’t want some clarity around what the film is actually trying to do, especially in the era of reboots and pre-/sequels.