Romulus’ Director Fede Álvarez Denies Ellen Ripley Is in Sequel

As with any anticipated sequel to popular franchises, the upcoming continuation of 2023’s Alien: Romulus has become the subject of rumors regarding its plot details since earlier last year, when it was first announced that it was happening. A new rumor from the fan website Alien vs. Predator Galaxy has been shot down by the director of Romulus and the upcoming film, Fede Álvarez. The report in question stated that there had been talks with franchise star Sigourney Weaver, who had been in the original four Alien films, to return as Ellen Ripley for the upcoming sequel.

Álvarez took to the social media platform X to respond to the AvP fan website directly, stating that the rumor is “fun gossip. But not true at all,” quickly stomping out any ideas or speculations that the Alien franchise would be bringing back the iconic character from its previous nine films. Romulus, set between the events of the first Alien film and Aliens, is disconnected from the greater film series as the movie features characters who grew up on a Weyland-Yutani company mining planet.

While there are plenty of references to the first Alien film as well as events that occurred in Ridley Scott’s prequels Prometheus and Covenant, there’s no direct connection to Ripley other than the Android Ash, with Ian Holm’s likeness being used for the character’s appearance in Romulus. Besides Easter eggs and references to greater lore, the 2023 film made no indication that a sequel could feature previous Alien characters.

‘Alien Romulus’ Works Thanks to Its Detachment From Previous Franchise Stars

Fede Álvarez has said before that the initial inception of the younger cast of characters in Alien: Romulus was born out of inspiration when the director viewed a deleted scene from James Cameron’s film Aliens, which showed a group of children running around a space station. This came from the director’s instinct to try something “different that hasn’t been seen before,” and thus led to the creation of Romulus. When you pair this up with Álvarez’s recent comments about wanting to go into “uncharted” waters for the Romulus sequel, it’s hard to believe that Ellen Ripley would even factor into the film in the first place.

The ending of Romulus shows the film’s sole survivor, Rain (Cailee Spaeny), entering cryostasis in the hopes that she will survive and make it to Yvaga III alive. If there’s any indication of where the sequel is headed, it will follow up on her journey to that planet while also factoring in Xenomorphs. Besides that, the film is a chance to be a blank slate for a new trilogy to hopefully explore frightening new terrors in space. Moreover, should the film not make insane jumps in time between it and Romulus, Ripley should technically still be in cryostasis herself and thus absent from the new sequel.

Despite the rumor being quickly dismissed, it’s fun to speculate about the future of the Alien franchise. The sci-fi horror series has had a rough few years, but now the future looks bright, with a Romulus sequel and Noah Hawley’s television show Alien: Earth on the way. The Alien series’ time with Ellen Ripley was incredible, but now it’s time to look toward the future, with Cailee Spaeny as Rain seemingly taking center stage for whatever comes next.

Alien: Romulus takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots. While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Release Date

August 16, 2024

Runtime

119 Minutes

Cast

Cailee Spaeny
, David Jonsson
, Archie Renaux
, Isabela Merced
, Spike Fearn
, Aileen Wu
, Rosie Ede
, Soma Simon
, Bence Okeke
, Viktor Orizu
, Robert Bobroczkyi
, Trevor Newlin
, Annemarie Griggs
, Daniel Betts

Main Genre

Horror