Over the weekend at Comic-Con, 20th Century Studios held their Alien: Romulus panel (some photos here) in the massive Hall H. Director Fede Alvarez was on hand along with stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, and Spike Fearn, who talked about the challenges of shooting a film in this classic sci-fi universe. Not only that, but the film is placed between Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien, and James Cameron’s Aliens in 1986, putting it in an even greater spotlight.
While a lot of footage was shown, Alvarez admitted that he recut some of the scenes to maintain some of the surprises. Alien: Romulus is clearly in his wheelhouse as a horror movie, and keeping the shock value is key to that since we’ve all seen Xenomorphs in grisly action before.
The new clip released today was not among those shown during the panel. It features Merced’s character, Kay, as she attempts to silently flee a Xenomorph. Good luck with that. The film shows that Alvarez was clearly inspired by the design layout of Alien and Aliens, which are pretty good influences to borrow from.
Merced plays one of a group of young space colonists who encounter the extraterrestrial creatures while scavenging a derelict space station.
Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16th, and look out for the interview I had with Alvarez while attending Comic-Con.
