Alien: Romulus featured

Interview: Fede Alvarez Talks Taking the ‘Alien’ Franchise Back to Basics with ‘Alien: Romulus’

August 12, 2024Ben MK




Whether you're a fan of the science fiction and horror genres or not, it's hard to understate the impact and influence that the Alien franchise has had on moviegoers, filmmakers, and creators across other mediums alike. 45 years after the first Alien first terrified audiences, what started from relatively humble beginnings has since gone on to spawn six sequels, not to mention numerous crossovers with the likes of Predator, Superman, Batman, and even the Avengers. Indeed, the mythology surrounding the iconic Xenomorph has come a long way since Ridley Scott's 1979 original. But with Alien: Romulus, writer-director Fede Alvarez is taking the seminal sci-fi series back to its horror roots, in this story of an all-new group of space explorers who are forced to confront the ultimate nightmare in the cold isolation of space.

I caught up with Fede Alvarez to chat about the making of Alien: Romulus, his love for the horror genre, and why he chose to set this latest installment in the legendary Alien franchise between the frightening events of Ridley Scott's Alien and the action of James Cameron's fan-favorite sequel, Aliens.

You previously put your stamp on another of Hollywood's biggest horror franchises, namely Evil Dead. Why did you want to make an Alien film, and what is it about the genre that keeps you coming back?

Alvarez: I just love the genre in general. Nothing beats watching your own horror movie with a crowd, and getting them to react in the ways that you hope to get them to react. Nothing beats that. I grew up in the '80s and the '90s watching [the Alien] movies, loving them, and never thought I was ever gonna be able to do one of them. So it's great to finally, after playing pretend with those things, to do it for real. I mean, the filmmakers that made these movies were inspired by movies from the 1930s that was kind of the same concept. Actually, Alien was inspired by body horror, science fiction, monster movies. I think Alien is such an iconic thing, we can go and make another Alien and there's still an audience out there that loves it.

From what I've seen of Alien: Romulus, it looks to be a back-to-basics sequel that isn't as concerned with expanding the mythology as the previous sequel, Alien: Covenant. How did the idea for this movie come to be, and why did you decide to set it between the events of Alien and Aliens?

Alvarez: As an audience [member] and as a fan, I felt like the movies naturally have to progress — what Cameron does with Aliens takes it more to a war movie, and then Fincher takes it to more of a prison movie [with Alien 3]. A constant evolution needs to happen. But I think sometimes it gets too far from what it originally was. So I felt like my ambition was to kind of take it back to basics, take it back to that start of a pure horror movie. But also, in a way, I could not resist to bring some of the elements of action that Cameron brought on Aliens. So that's why we set it in the middle. It was the perfect excuse to be an amalgamation between those two movies somehow, leaning more on the style definitely of the first film, but having elements of both, for sure.

And when it comes to the Alien franchise, we can always count on two things being present, namely a strong female protagonist and, of course, a climax that involves an airlock. Can you talk about how Romulus lives up to both of those series mainstays?

Alvarez: Yeah, well definitely, for female protagonists, we have very strong ones with Cailee Spaeny and Isabela Merced. They're head to head on this movie, like they're really incredible to watch together on screen. Then on the airlock side, we definitely have a few airlocks. [laughs] We hopefully tried to play them in different ways than the other movies, and we do. But there's no Alien without airlocks.

The original films were made before the advent of computer graphics, with practical effects. And with Romulus, you also chose to go the practical effects route. Can you talk a bit about that?

Alvarez: Ideally, the more effort you put into the movie, the more it translates on screen. We tried, every time we could, to bring the real thing, which is what we did, by creating the creatures, not just shooting in an empty room and letting someone else later do a beautiful, amazing CG render. So if it was possible to build, if it could be built, it was built. And the same with the sets, the same with [everything in] the world that we did. You have to use all the tools available, you have to use the best CG available today, but you also have to take the best techniques that were invented many, many years ago, that are still, for me, even more effective than before because technology's so much better now when it comes to creating the creatures and the puppets and the animatronics. So hopefully the movie's a celebration of all the things that Hollywood was created on that front.

Do you have a scene in the movie that's your favorite, the most memorable, or even the most challenging?

Alvarez: I do. There’s many favorite moments in the movie. I think the chestburster scene was one of the big challenges, because in the first movie it's so iconic. The birth of Alien is the birth of that creature in that scene in the first movie. So we needed to find a way to do it that couldn't be the same, that needed to be different. And I think we found a way. The way it happens in the story it's almost like a documentary, when you see it you feel like that thing is real — that's how the chestburster would come out in real life, in the real world, not in the movie world. That's how it feels watching the movie, and that's why I’m really proud of it.

Last but not least, do you have a message for Alien fans, especially those who have been waiting over four decades for this kind of return to form for the franchise?

Alvarez: The message is really, for the ones that love those first two movies, this will take them hopefully back to that world and those feelings that those movies gave them. That is the goal.
Alien: Romulus is in theaters August 16th.




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