ALIEN: ROMULUS Director Confirms Major Ellen Ripley Easter Egg, and it Changes Everything
You might not have spotted her, but Ellen Ripley was technically in Alien: Romulus. Director Fede Álvarez confirmed the surprising Easter egg during a recent screening and panel hosted by Collider, revealing a hidden connection that reworks Ripley’s timeline in a new way. According to Álvarez and the film’s VFX team, this twist is officially canon.
Alien: Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens, during a period when Ripley was supposedly drifting in deep space aboard the Narcissus, cryogenically frozen.
For 57 years, she remained lost, at least, that’s how Aliens presents it. But Álvarez found that hard to believe, especially given what Romulus reveals about Weyland-Yutani’s capabilities.
“My logic was at some point if Weyland-Yutani could find the Xenomorph floating around the debris of the Nostromo, to find the Narcissus, the shuttle that Ripley escaped in, is the easiest part,” Álvarez explained.
“It’s a lifeboat; it has a beacon. Yeah, you’ll find her, right? It will be a place to figure out the research of what’s going on. You should go get her. So I’m sure they did, right?
“So I was like, ‘At some point, the Narcissus has to be inside the Renaissance station somewhere.’ Not only that, I wanted to give an explanation of why Ripley got lost 40 years between [Alien and Aliens].
“She was supposed to go to Earth and be in stasis for decades until she gets picked up in Aliens, so I was like, ‘Why did that happen?’ So I thought, ‘Because they picked her up.’”
According to Álvarez, Weyland-Yutani didn’t just let Ripley float in the void for decades, they had her onboard Renaissance Station the entire time. The implication is that Ripley may have briefly been awake, aware, or even involved in events we never saw before being put back on ice.
The evidence is there in Romulus . Alvarez continued: “It’s a massive station, right? You get to see, like, probably 3% of the corridors that that station has. When you see them, think about the scale.
“So there’s plenty of room for Ripley to be around doing her thing, and then when she realized the whole thing was going to blow up, she had to get back to the Narcissus and get the f**k out of there.”
The Narcissus is even visible in Romulus, tucked into the background of two separate shots. Álvarez revealed:
“So, if you watch, if you look closely, you’ll see the Narcissus twice in the movie in the background in a couple of sections where they walk by it, and you can see it right there on the wall.
“Then, of course, she cannot die, so in the big explosion at the end when the station is crashing on the rings, you have to show the Narcissus leaving. I asked these guys, ‘Can you give me a Narcissus there?’ And they were like, ‘We’re on it!’ And they were all excited about it.”
If Ripley was technically on Renaissance Station, why isn’t it ever mentioned in Aliens? Why doesn’t she remember?
Regardless, this also subtly repositions Ripley’s story, creating an interesting hidden chapter in her journey.
Alien: Romulus is streaming now on Hulu.