ALIEN: ROMULUS Director Reveals Film Was Inspired by an ALIENS Deleted Scene
Alien: Romulus looks like it’s going to take audiences on a crazy scary ride! I love that the new Alien film is going to lean into the horror aspect of the franchise, and I’m excited to see how the story plays out. During a recent interview with THR, director Fede Alvarez opened up about the movie and revealed what actually sparked the idea for this film’s story, and it was a deleted scene from James Cameron’s Aliens.
Alvarez initially made his film pitch to Ridley Scott right before Scott was going to make Alien: Covenant, and Alvarez shared some things he would like to see. He explained: “I was like, ‘I think you guys should do this and approach it this way, and maybe it’s about that, and suddenly, I was pitching, but I was not really being asked to do it. So that stayed in the air there somehow, and then a couple of years later, Ridley remembered that.”
He obviously made quite the impression on Scott! In Alien: Romulus, “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.” It’s the “young space colonizers,” that sparked the idea.
The director recalled: “I remember watching an extended cut of Aliens, and there’s a moment where you see a bunch of kids running [and riding a Big Wheel] around the corridors of this colony. And I thought, ‘Wow, what would it be like for those kids to grow up in a colony that still needs another 50 years to terraform? There’s no sunlight and there’s no real life, except to just take the place of a parent and do the same job they did.’”
He continued: “So when I saw those kids, I remember thinking, ‘If I ever tell a story in that world, I would definitely be interested in those kids when they reach their early 20s, and what they want to do and where they want to go,’ and when it comes to having them encounter the creature, the dynamics are completely different. So that might be the reason why we managed to make it. When Ridley read it, he felt that it was completely different than the other movies.”
This is a fun concept, and I’m glad that Alvarez ran with it! I remember Aliens was the first Extended Edition film that I ever watched as a kid, and it watched it on Laser Disc! I remember that scene he’s talking about and you can watch it in the deleted scenes clip below.
Alien: Romulus is set to hit theaters on August 16th.