Alien: Romulus writer/director Fede Alvarez last spoke about progress on the film’s sequel back in February where he revealed that he was writing the script with the hopes to begin shooting this year. Speaking recently to the Marea Nocturna podcast (via World of Reel), Fede Alvarez re-affirmed that his progress and hopes for Alien: Romulus 2!
Director Fede Álvarez is telling the Marea Nocturna podcast that not only is he in pre-production on the film, but he plans to start shooting the sequel in October.
[Update 07/06/25] – MovieWeb recently shared the translated transcriptions of Fede Alvarez’s appearance on the Marea Nocturna podcast where Fede discussed how he and his writing partner were writing every day at the moment, and that he believes the film should be in production by October.
“I’m currently in the period between movies, where I mostly wear the writer’s hat, and I always try to do this. To imagine that I won’t direct the movie, and that I just have to write a story. I’m in this process now. We’re writing a sequel to Romulus, and we’re in the middle of that. When I say, ‘We,’ I mean I and Rodo [Sayagues], my co-writer in all my movies. It’s what we’re doing every day right now.”
The conversation then segued into a long chat about influences, industry anecdotes, and becoming the horror master that Álvarez is today. When wrapping the episode, the hosts invite the director to the next Sitges Film Festival, which will take place in Spain next October. It was in Álvarez’s response that he revealed that perhaps he wouldn’t make it to Sitges, because the sequel would be in production by then. Nevertheless, he said that if the production calls for him to be in Europe, he could attend:
“Hopefully, by that time, I should be in pre-production [for the sequel], but if the production is set in Europe, then I should go.”
Last month, entertainment journalist & prolific scooper Jeff Sneider shared a rumour that the Predator would be making an appearance in some capacity in the follow-up to Alien: Romulus. Unlike the rumours that the sequel would feature a de-aged Sigourney Weaver that were debunked by Fede himself, the writer/director has been quiet about this latest rumour.
Word on the street is that there IS a Predator in the script for Fede Alvarez’s follow-up to ALIEN: ROMULUS.
“Wherever we go now, we can go into uncharted waters. I think it’ll be so exciting to go with characters you know from this movie, to a place in the Alien franchise that we’ve never been before, and to discover things that you’ve never seen before.”
Keep your browsers locked on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Alien: Romulus 2 news! You can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums.
I like it (at least the audio drama) aside from the core conceit of having Ripley between movies, which is awful. But the rest of it ain't bad, and deserved better than that contrivance.
Hot take: I like it.
I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING
He was referring to the actual plot of the book Out of the Shadows.
Ash's consciousness surviving, good god don't give them ideas. They will have him uploading himself into a computer on the Narcissus or something, and I'm just spitballing here but he would start searching for Aliens and Ripley would wake up and she would battle the alien again but conveniently end up back in cryo sleep with no memory and a complete disregard for the harpoon gun wedged in the door. They probably would think this would work well as a video game or maybe even a book and call it "from within darkness" or "out of the shadows" something like that.
Christ it would be awful.
So in future we should keep these sorts of ideas just to ourselves. Thanks in advance.
Also, I wish Rook was actually Ash from the first movie somehow. I'm sure some explanation could have been given as to how Ash's consciousness survived.
I'll agree with that, but I think he's more than willing to push things beyond a point where humans lose their very humanity in order to achieve that goal. Differing motives leading to essentially the same results.
David wants to kill humanity with the perfect organism, while Rook wants to make humanity the perfect organism.
"If you do this, there will be no turning back..."
This interpretation depends entirely on whether you believe Rook is being genuine, which I absolutely do not for a second. He acts duplicitously throughout the movie (in terms of what information he reveals and when), all in the name of making sure the samples make it off the station before it's destroyed. On the contrary, I think he only sees humans as the means to an end, which is being able to refine the potential he sees in the pathogen and its ability to ultimately create a perfect organism.
In short, I see far more echoes of David than I do points of difference.
I do, however, have a problem with the fact that the notoriously misanthropic and genocidal David is sending reports about his experiments left and right.
What reports? Did I miss something in viral marketing? Didn't David do all of his experiments alone on Planet 4 after icing the local Engineer population?
True. David still should have been mentioned, though, especially concerning his reports on the pathogen and his discoveries. In fact, Romulus should have revolved around him.
David hates humanity, he seeks its extinction and the Engineers' extinction, as well as their replacement by his creations, it's his way to exorcize the deep existential wound of having been created, in his opinion, by stupid jackasses.
Rook remains a servant of humanity through and through. He wants our species to evolve beyond its natural state and to conquer the stars. He sees Plagiarus praepotens as a means to an end, and its incarnations (XX121 particularly) as cumbersome and a threat to his masters.
Quite the opposite for yours truly, I must admit. I don't understand people who like Alien: Covenant. I'm not saying the movie is devoid of qualities, I just don't see them at all, and I may vibe more with works created by an artist who similarly dislikes the 2017 story.
Agreed.
I wish the echo probe found the covenant not the Nostromo wreck that makes f**k all sense.
Rook should have been David.
That he would steer things back on course and bring it back to Covenant.
False hope, I guess.
Or refer to both as the same thing
Even though they are not (independent studies)
Last year, he told the same anecdote about The Offspring.
But he named Fox and Steve Asbell (president) as his bosses.
With complete freedom on their part In general but with doubts about The Offspring
Last year, he said the same thing: that Fox had doubts about The Offspring.And he didn't talk to anyone at Disney.
Only Fox.
Who knows who's lurking out there.
Spoiler
Not necessarily. Rain could reappear as a grand-grandmother, or in flashbacks, or she could skip decades or centuries through cryosleep. Amongst other things.
But even without that, it's a big universe out there.
Can only be the black goo. Would be a hell of a stretch to end up in another place that just happened to be Alien infested
One of the reasons he got involved with the Alien franchise was because after the Covenant fiasco, he knew the studio would give him a lot of freedom, as the franchise was going through a rough patch.
-He likes Prometheus, but not Covenant (he mentions he could talk for hours about the problems he has with that film, although he likes the first part). Anyway he enjoy all the films in the franchise. He loves Fincher and Cameron.
-The studio had reservations about including Prometheus references in Romulus, but he insisted.
-He's obsessed with detail and what works in terms of production design. He gives as an example that the entire team from the first Alien film worked on the film "Outlander," but even though they tried to imitate the visual style, it didn't quite work. He and his team analyzed the film thoroughly and realized that visually it didn't work as well because certain colors (purple) on the consoles and keyboards weren't used in Alien and prevented it from being as visually rounded. (That's how far his obsession goes.)
-The studio gave him freedom to make the film, he didn't have any problems beyond certain doubts about introducing material about Prometheus, and Disney went crazy with the Offspring birth scene (because they passed them a fairly explicit unedited cut xD).
-After Romulus, he was planning to make a more independent film, but the studio was very insistent that he make a sequel to Romulus (he mentions that they've given him absolute artistic freedom, as long as it has something to do with Alien).
-He mentions that the important thing for him, both with Romulus and its sequel, is that from the first minute, people have the feeling that they're watching an Alien movie (I suppose this will reassure those who were nervous after the last paragraph).
-He's currently writing the script for the sequel with Rodolfo, the person with whom he writes all his scripts. He's in the middle of the process. They hope to be in pre-production by October. Writing is always more difficult for him than directing.
-He mentions that the Alien universe is VERY extensive, and that this will be very useful in the sequel.
-Fede comments that it was important for him to show the transition in Romulus from how Rain treats Randy as a "false brother" to how he truly sees him as such when he instructs him to do "what's best for both of them." One of the things he "demanded" from the studio was that everything that could be done with practical effects would be done, and although they insisted heavily on CGI, he got it.
They talk a lot about cinema and influences, but that's basically what he says about Alien. There are no major revelations beyond the fact that the film will start shooting in October, and he hopes to be able to film before the end of the year.
I'm hoping he does close the Prequel strands like he mentioned on that The Wrap interview for the sequel, and brings Fassbender and the Engineers in to finish that story so we finally get some closer than bringing in the Predator for kicks.
I'm from Spain. I'll give it a listen and i'll tell you the most important things.
Can't do that and retain Spaeny as Rain, as she'd be in her 60s by then. Those cryo tubes they salvaged don't have enough coolant to keep her frozen that long.
My guess is next movie is after Alien 3. Free realestate for Fede to do anything he wants.
Where are the xenos going to come from this time?
Another pre-Aliens setting?
Same. And the PS5 version of Rogue incursion, to lesser extent.