What could this mean for the franchise?
Alien fans have been eating good recently. The franchise finally reached great quality again. Not only is the current show, Alien: Earth, a fun prequel to the first movie, the most recent movie, Alien: Romulus, brought the Xenomorphs back to the big screen and reignited my love for the franchise.
Alien: Romulus was directed by Fede Álvarez, which explains the great revival. Álvarez also directed the 2013 Evil Dead reboot, which not only brought the franchise back from the dead, but is also – in my humble opinion – one of the best horror movies of the 2010s.
Passing The Torch
Fede Álvarez did such great work on Alien: Romulus that even 20th Century Studios President Steve Asbell indicated that he was attempting to lock up Álvarez to a deal for the next film in the franchise.
Álvarez, though, apparently had other plans, as he stepped down as the sequel's director. While on the red carped of Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights, he broke the news.
We just finished the script, actually, for a sequel for 'Romulus.' But I'm gonna pass the torch on this one as director. I'm going to produce it with Ridley Scott, we're gonna produce it together and we're right now trying to find a new filmmaker to come in.
So, no need to cry: Álvarez will stay as co-writer and he'll be a producer for the next Alien movie as well.
Álvarez Focuses On Passion Project
Álvarez explains why he decided to step away from Alien – as a director, at least – and to be honest, his reason is quite exciting.
I want to work on a personal project that me and my co-writer, we've been keeping on the back burner for a while, and we feel it's the right time to go and work on an original.
His last original movie was the claustrophobic and intense Don't Breathe. It will be fun to see what Álvarez will give us next now that he has even more experience. But not every face in Alien: Romulus 2 will be a new one.
Actors Stay
The IMDb-page of the sequel shows that Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson will reprise their roles from the first movie. This indicates that the sequel will probably pick up the story where the last movie left off.
Maybe Alien: Romulus will follow the direction of the first two movies. After Alien by Ridley Scott was a great horror success, the sequel was also directed by a new director – James Cameron – and became a beloved horror-action movie.
Who would you like to direct the next Alien movie? I personally think Sébastien Vaniček showed us with his movie Infested that he can pull off a great creature feature in a claustrophobic setting. And if he got to do it, he would be the second director after Álvarez to work on both Evil Dead and Alien.