How Alien: Romulus Connects to the Rest of the Alien Franchise

The following story contains some spoilers for Alien: Romulus.

I’LL SAY IT: the Alien movie franchise is the best sci-fi/horror franchise there is. Whether we’re talking about the dread of Ridley Scott’s 1979 original Alien, the blockbuster enormity of James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens, the heady themes and sci-fi brilliance of Scott’s prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, or anything else in between, the movies area always exactly what we want and need them to be: fun, action-packed, and sometimes scary, with great characters drawing us in all along the way.

Part of what makes these movies so great, though, is that they connect to each other so wonderfully. Every film in the series is aided by what Alien established, but the rest of the movies tend to tie in to the others in one way or another, whether it’s characters, references, or anything else; each text generally stands to enrich another by one angle or another.

Which brings us to Alien: Romulus. The seventh film in the proper Alien series (we aren’t counting the Alien vs. Predator movies), Romulus is set between the events of Alien and Aliens, and director Fede Álvarez made a specific point to honor many of the films in the franchise that came before him. That includes some of the movie’s tone, some of the underlining lore that informs the movie and its world, some of the action and way people speak, and, of course, it informs the presence of the Xenomorphs and other creatures present throughout the film.

We knew Alien: Romulus was going to connect to the rest of the Alien franchise, but how it connects is a pretty big surprise, all things considered.

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Alien: Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens

It’s been made clear in the lead-up to Alien: Romulus‘s release that the film is set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). Caileee Spaeny originally confirmed this back in a November 2023 interview with Variety. “It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie,” she said. “They brought the same team from Aliens, the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours.”

The movie plays into this from the very opening, as the first scene of the film shows the Xenomorph that was shot out of the Nostromo‘s airlock by Ripley being scavenged and taking in by a Weyland-Yutani Corporation science team to experiment on; they, like us, assumed the creature was dead, but guess what? It’s not. This, presumably, is what leads to the Xenomorphs wreaking havoc on this station, where people are killed and the station is eventually abandoned… and then scavenged for parts and valuables by our main characters throughout the remainder of the film.

It involves science established in Prometheus

Much of the Ridley Scott-directed prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant revolve around the search for, and creation of, the “perfect” lifeforms. This involves the creation and discovery of a very gross (and very potently dangerous) black goo.

In Alien: Romulus, it’s revealed by Rook (Ian Holm, and, yes, more on that in a bit) that the black goo had been discovered by Weyland-Yutani scientists and reverse-engineered into what they’re now calling the “Prometheus Strain.” It’s still a black goo, but now it’s in a test tube and being claimed as a potential cure for all diseases. Because we all know how well things like that usually go in movies!

As it turns out, the Prometheus Strain figures prominently into the end of the movie; after Kay (Isabela Merced)—who it was established earlier in the film is pregnant—is nearly fatally-wounded by a Xenomorph, she gives herself a shot of the Prometheus Strain. And while at first she seems to be healed… that doesn’t last. Her pregnancy comes to term uber-rapidly, and she births a horrific creature that looks like a cross between a Xenomorph, a human, and the Engineers from Prometheus.

This horrific new creature becomes the primary threat in Romulus‘s third act—and helps make it the most exciting part of an already exciting movie.

It includes a callback to an iconic Aliens line

When Rain (Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson) are in their final battle with the Xenomorph, things are looking dire… until Andy is able to fall down, slam on the Xenomorphy, and shoot it about a hundred times in the head.

But that’s not all; he has enough time to utter one of the most iconic lines in the series. “Get away from her, you… bitch,” he says, maintaining the stutter that comes along with his outdated android hardware.

This is, of course, a throwback to an absolutely incredible line that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) uttered in one of the most climactic moments of 1986’s Aliens.

It features a (bizarre) throwback to an Alien character, with Ian Holm’s likeness now being projected onto an android named Rook

Easily the most controversial attempt at nostalgia in Alien: Romulus involves the return of Ian Holm, who played the evil android Ash in the original Alien, this time playing a mostly-destroyed evil android called Rook. Except there’s one problem… Holm died in 2020 at the age of 88, and his likeness is revived here thanks to a combination of Holm’s likeness via AI augmentation and a vocal and facial performance by actor Daniel Betts. It’s very uncanny valley, and was absolutely not necessary, especially given how much effort and skill went into the excellent production design and practical effects throughout the film.

Rook brings an interesting component to the story, as he leads Andy to upgrade his software, and changes his directive; he becomes more sinister and his arc is more complete as a result. But we just didn’t need the film to embrace such unnecessary and strange technology; it wasn’t good when Peter Cushing was revived in the Star Wars film Rogue One, and it’s not much better now. Couldn’t this have been Michael Fassbender or Lance Henriksen?