ALIEN: ROMULUS Director Adressess That Surprise Cameo in the Film

Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez has addressed a big cameo in the film that was one of the new film’s big franchise callbacks. Spoilers ahead!

The movie includes an android character named Rook, but it was the same model as Ash from the original Alien movie played by the late Ian Holm.

Alvarez and producer Ridley Scott decided to bring this model of the android back for the film because he is the one who started it all.

Alvarez confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: "There’s just a limited amount of synthetics, and that’s why some come back a few times.

“So we were talking, and Ridley and I felt like the one that has never been back was the best one of them all, the original model played by Ian Holm."

In the film, while walking through the space station Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her synthetic brother find a half-destroyed android that resembles Ash.

Alvarez confirmed: "It's a different android, but it's the same consciousness of Mother that moved from one android to the other.”

The producing team did have to reach out to Holm’s estate first to be able to bring the character back and Alvarez said of Holm's widow: "She felt that Ian was given the cold shoulder by Hollywood in the last years of his life. So she was thrilled about the idea of having him back."

It was cool to see the character come back, but my biggest gripe with the film was the visual effects used to bring him back for the role of Rook. Those effects we’re not done very well, it was very cheap looking. They could’ve done a much better job than what they ended up doing.

What did you think about bringing this android back for Alien: Romulus?