Fede Álvarez’s Alien Movie: Release Date, Cast And Other Things We Know About The Sci-Fi Horror Sequel
There are few cinematic sci-fi franchises as widely beloved and as highly influential as the series of Alien movies, which also counts as one of the best horror movie franchises of all time with how creepy and gory things tend to get when Xenomorphs are around. So far, we have seen humans struggle to survive against said terrifying, bloodthirsty creature (sometimes in multiples) on the big screen eight times — if you include the two Alien vs. Predator crossover films and the brief glimpse at an early variation of the Xenomorph from the end of Prometheus. The franchise will soon continue with its ninth chapter when Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie arrives.
Now, any time it is announced that a long-running, iconic franchise such as this is about to continue with a new film, it tends to raise a great deal of questions. However, with how complicated the Alien movies timeline has gotten in recent years and with the announcement of a FX original spin-off TV show from Noah Hawley in the works, this is a special case. We will provide you with as many things that we know at the moment about the latest sequel to one of the greatest space movies in our guide below.
What Is Fede Álvarez’s Alien Movie’s Release Date?
Fan can expect to see Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie on our upcoming 2024 movies schedule. To be precise, the film is set to hit theaters on Friday, August 16, 2024, according to a Variety article detailing various release date announcements and delays by the franchise’s current parent company, Disney, from 2023.
The movie was initially developed with the intention of releasing it exclusively to those with a Hulu subscription, with 20th Century Studios’ Steve Asbell telling The Hollywood Reporter that it’s “not a film that has to be all things to all people with those gargantuan budgets.” However, somebody must have changed their mind somewhere down the line, and I wonder if it had anything to do with the recent success of two great movies on Hulu about extraterrestrials that many believe deserved theatrical releases: Prey and No One Will Save You.
Cailee Spaeny Leads The Cast
As much as we would love to see legendary Scream Queen Sigourney Weaver reprise her Academy Award-nominated role as Ellen Ripley, the names that have been confirmed to appear in the new Alien movie cast give us plenty of reason to be excited. In the lead is Cailee Spaeny, who made her feature film debut fighting otherworldly beings in Pacific Rim: Uprising before later joining HBO’s Mare of Easttown cast and playing the title role of Sofia Coppola’s biopic, Priscilla. She has another upcoming A24 movie on the horizon called Civil War, which reunites her with Devs creator Alex Garland.
According to Deadline, Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie cast also includes Isabela Merced, who has another blockbuster due in 2024 in the form of Sony’s Madame Web movie, and another upcoming superhero movie out in 2025, Superman Legacy, as Hawkgirl. Her and Spaeny’s co-stars, as reported by THR, include Rye Lane star David Jonsson, Archie Renaux of Morbius cast fame, Spike Fearn from the Oscar-nominated 2022 drama Aftersun, and Aileen Wu will be making her feature film debut in her role that, like that of the rest of the ensemble, is currently undisclosed.
The Sequel Takes Place Between The First Two Alien Movies
While there is still nothing to suggest that this new film is directly tied to the 1979 original and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, Aliens — widely considered the best Alien movies to this day — Cailee Spaeny’s comments to Variety claim that this new film is set between those classics.
Long before the actor provided that information, 20th Century Studios issued a press release teasing what to expect from the upcoming film’s story. According to the logline, it will follow “a group of young people on a distant world” who will come face to face with the universe’s “most terrifying life form,” which is, of course, one of the all-time greatest horror movie villains: the Xenomorph. Considering the age range of the confirmed cast members, learning the new Alien will be a coming-of-age thriller certainly checks out.
Alien: Romulus Is The Working Title
Anybody following updates on this upcoming horror movie might recognize it by a different title than simply “Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie.” Many news outlets — and even the film’s official IMDb page — have been referring to it as Alien: Romulus, which may refer to the ship the bulk of the story takes place on, which was also the case for Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. However, as far as we know, this is a working title and an official name has yet to be announced.
Fede Álvarez Co-Writes And Directs
It should come as no surprise, with this blockbuster being referred to as “Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie,” that the filmmaker is helming the new Alien flick, from a screenplay he penned with his longtime professional partner, Rodo Sayagues. Álvarez made his mainstream breakthrough a decade earlier by breathing new life into another beloved horror franchise, the Evil Dead series, with his brutal 2013 reboot. He went on to direct an original thriller called Don’t Breathe in 2016, brought Lisbeth Salander back to U.S. cinema with The Girl in the Spider’s Web two years later, and attempted another sequel to a horror classic as the producer of Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Signed on as a producer of Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie is the director of the original sci-fi movie classic: Ridley Scott. The Academy Award nominated filmmaker — who recently released his latest historical biopic, Napoleon, and is currently at work on a sequel to Gladiator — has already seen an early cut of the new sci-fi thriller and was driven to use an expletive to describe just how great it was, in his opinion. If the filmmaker who was key to the beginning of this phenomenon has high praise for the latest Alien movie, that sounds like a good sign to us.
The Movie Wrapped Production In July 2023
When Fede Álvarez’s Alien movie hits theaters in August, it will have been a little more than a year since the filmmaker finished shooting it. On July 3, 2023, Álvarez announced, via his personal Instagram account, that the movie had wrapped principal photography. Thus, the Xenomorph’s return is well on its way!
With a filmmaker as talented as Fede Álvarez bringing the franchise back to the big screen and Emmy-winner Noah Hawley in charge of the the aforementioned TV spin-off, now seems like a great time to be an Alien fan.
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