As 20th Century Studios confirms that an Alien: Romulus sequel is on the way, here are the threads and clues about what might happen in it.
NB: The following contains spoilers for Alien: Romulus. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, why not read our spoiler-free review?
Director Fede Alvarez may previously have been coy about any plans to make a sequel to August’s sci-fi horror Alien: Romulus, but he and writer Rodo Sayagues at least left the story open enough for some sort of continuation.
Alien: Romulus made around $350m worldwide in cinemas, which is a healthy figure for an $80m-budgeted movie originally destined for streaming, and in the wake of that success, 20th Century Studios boss Steve Asbell has confirmed that a sequel is indeed in the planning stages.
The news emerged in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, in which Asbell talked about a number of other films on the way, including a second, previously unannounced Predator movie due out next year.
Of the Alien: Romulus follow-up, Asbell said, “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 then confirmed that the first film’s stars Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson will also return, which implies that the sequel will directly follow the events of Romulus (a slight contrast from Alien: Covenant, which followed a separate cast of characters who wound up bumping into Michael Fassbender’s David from that film’s predecessor, Prometheus).
“The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film,” Asbell said. “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.”
Read more: Fede Alvarez interview | Practical effects, Hollywood apathy, and making divisive sci-fi horror
In earlier interviews, Alvarez provided his own clues as to where Alien: Romulus might head. This year’s film concluded with Spaeny’s Rain and Jonsson’s damaged but functional synthetic Andy in hypersleep, their ship headed for a planet called Yvaga. Although the immediate threat from the xenomorph is behind them, Andy had retained a sample of the Z-01 mutagen from the Renaissance space station. That mutagen will almost certainly play some sort of role in the next film.
Alvarez, meanwhile, suggests that the planet Rain and Andy are heading towards isn’t exactly the utopia they think it is.
As the director told THR in August, “Once we finished [Alien: Romulus], we started thinking, ‘What do you think happens when or if they get to Yvaga? Is it going to be great? Or is it a terrible place?’”
Alvarez pointed out that ‘Yvaga’ is a Guarani word meaning ‘paradise’ – and suggested that the planet itself will be the exact opposite.
“We tend to believe it’s probably a terrible place that they think is great and fantasise about, so we naturally started thinking about where it goes and what’s going to happen,” he said. “And then, a few minutes in, we go, ‘Oh, that sounds like a sequel.'”
We can only speculate as to how Rain and Andy will encounter the xenomorph again on Yvaga. Maybe that pesky mutagen will turn some other unsuspecting lifeform into a monster. Or maybe Yvaga will turn out to be yet another Weyland Yutani outpost where secret experiments take place.
What’s clear is that, in some shape or form, the xenomorph will return…
