Movie franchises are a lot like memories...they may fade away, but they'll never die. The latest example of this adage is the current rebirth of the 44-year-old Alien movie franchise. Despite numerous attempts to reignite the franchise with Alien: Resurrection, the Alien vs. Predator films, Prometheus, and a Neil Blomkamp-directed sequel that was ultimately canceled, the franchise sputtered to a halt in 2017 with Alien: Covenant.

But now, six years later, the Alien franchise has come roaring back to life onscreen. Noah Hawley (Fargo) is working on an Alien series for FX, and the ninth Alien movie is on its way. Though the two productions exist in the same franchise, the plots of the series and the movie and series are unconnected...as of now, anyway. Meanwhile, here's everything we know so far about the ninth Alien movie, titled Alien: Romulus.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on April 19, 2024.

What Is The Release Date for 'Alien: Romulus'?

Alien: Romulus will hit theaters on August 16, 2024. The film will be opening against Kevin Costner's western epic Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2. While the new film was initially announced to be heading straight to Hulu, much like the Predator prequel film Prey, the film will now be receiving an exclusive theatrical release. That being said, once the film's theatrical window ends, it will be available to stream on Hulu.

Is There a Trailer for 'Alien: Romulus'?

20th Century Studios released the first teaser trailer for Alien: Romulus on March 20, 2024. Running at just over a minute-long, the first look at the film shies away from sharing any plot details, but it does show the seemingly brutal carnage and violence that the movie will be full of.

Additional footage for Alien: Romulus was shown during Disney's CinemaCon 2024 presentation in April 2024. Collider's Britta DeVore broke down the footage in a piece, saying:

In CinemaCon’s first look at Alvarez’s terrifying sci-fi flick, the crew members of Alien: Romulus are in for a terrifyingly long night. With an already positive reaction coming from franchise starter, Scott, we can confirm that this one will be filled with visually stunning sequences, practical effects, and intense and jaw-dropping moments. Two of the teammates are trapped in a blocked-off hall with Spaeny trying to break through the door to get them out. As they scramble to get out alive, the trapped men don’t even notice that aliens have hatched and are swimming through the flooded area to attack. By the end of the teaser, it’s too late for the entire crew as an alien has burst from one of the astronaut’s chests, starting the nightmare all over again.

Who Will Star in 'Alien: Romulus'?

Though you won't see Sigourney Weaver's iconic heroine Ripley in the latest Alien movie, Cailee Spaeny leads the cast as Rain Carradine, a similarly tough-skinned and feminist action hero. Spaeny is most known for playing the title role in the Sofia Coppola movie Priscilla, which garnered her unanimous praise. Spaeny also starred in the Emmy-winning HBO limited series Mare of Easttown, Alex Garland's Devs, Drew Goddard's neo-noir Bad Times at the El Royale, and Pacific Rim: Uprising.

Also joining the cast are David Jonsson (Rye Lane) as Andy and Isabela Merced (Sicario: Day of the Soldado) as Kay. Filling out the ensemble are Spike Fearn (The Batman), Archie Reneaux (Shadow and Bone), and relative newcomer Aileen Wu in undisclosed roles.

Sigourney Weaver hasn't specifically stated that she was done with the franchise--and her supposed death in Alien: Resurrection shouldn't bar her from returning. After all, Jamie Lee Curtis continues to battle Mike Myers after seven Halloween movies. However, fans hoping that Ripley might appear in the movie will likely be disappointed, as Weaver has given no hints that she's attached to the latest Alien project.

What's the Plot of 'Alien: Romulus'?

Alien movies typically focus on scientists, soldiers, or corporate employees, often in outer space or on another planet, and their usually lethal encounters with one or more Xenomorphs. And fans who point out that the "trapped with killer aliens" trope is the same in all films aren't wrong. The new movie is said to change the formula slightly by making its much-younger characters civilians rather than military, perhaps moving into Friday-the-13th teenage slasher flick territory. The action will also take place on a distant planet rather than on a spaceship or on Earth.

Like the most recent Predator movie Prey, the ninth Alien movie will be a standalone feature film with no connection to either the upcoming television series or any previous movies. In an interview with Variety, Cailee Spaeny revealed that the new film will take place between the events of the original Alien film and Aliens.

Though there's still no word whether the franchise's other antagonist, the evil Weyland-Yuanti corporation, will appear, one can always hope. The company's obsession with using the Xenomorphs as bioweapons and its tendency to quickly discard inconvenient humans in its quest for profit suggested still-unexplored themes like the blurred boundaries between artificial and human intelligence, the expansion of corporate dystopia over day-to-day life and the unpredictable lure of biological weapons. Here's hoping the company makes an appearance.

The official plot synopsis for the film via 20th Century Studios reads:

The sci-fi/horror-thriller 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.

Who Is Making 'Alien: Romulus'?

The continuation of the Alien franchise was officially confirmed at the 2019 CinemaCon. Initially, there was some talk that the film would connect to the plots of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant before Fede Alvarez came on board to write and direct in March 2022, Years earlier, Alvarez, a longtime fan of the Alien franchise, had casually pitched a new Alien story to Ridley Scott, who remembered Alvarez's story enough to invite him to write and direct the next film when it went into production. Alvarez is most known for directing the 2013 Evil Dead reboot as well as the 2016 sleeper hit Don't Breathe. He seems like the perfect director to capture the unique combination of science fiction and horror of the Alien movies, and 20th Century Fox picked up the project solely on the strength of Alvarez's story,

Alvarez was admittedly nervous about showing the film to Ridley Scott, particularly because the esteemed filmmaker is a tough critic. Alvarez said:

“I wanted him to see it before anybody. And everyone gave me the head’s up that Ridley is really tough. He’s really tough, particularly if it has something to do with his movies. He was really tough on ‘Blade Runner [2049],’ which I thought was a masterpiece, and he had issues with it because it’s really hard for him because it’s his work...I asked him about the new ‘Top Gun’ and he’s like ‘meh.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘My brother’s was original and this is like eh.’ He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was. So I was like, ‘There’s no way I win this one.'”

Fortunately, according to Alvarez, Scott had goods news for the filmmaker after watching the film:

“And then he walks into the room and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s fucking great. For me, it was like… My family knows it was one of the best moments of my life to have a master like him, whom I admired so much, to even watch a movie I made, but particularly something like this… and talk to me for an hour about what he liked about it. One of the best compliments he said was, ‘The dialogue is great. Are you the writer?’ Yes!”

Alvarez co-wrote the script with his frequent creative partner Rodo Sayagues. Ridley Scott serves as a producer on the film alongside Michael Pruss (Boston Strangler) and franchise veteran Walter Hill. Cinematographer Galo Olivares (Gretel & Hansel) served as the film's director of photography. Benjamin Wallfisch (the It films) composed the score for the movie. The film kicked off production in Budapest, Hungary on March 9, 2023. On July 3, it was revealed that filming had wrapped.

What’s Been Going On With the Alien Movies So Far?

In outer space, no one can hear you scream. But movie audiences don't seem to mind, as the Alien movie, written by Dan O'Bannon proved in 1979. Originally called Star Beast, the first treatment reworked O'Bannon's original idea of gremlins attacking a B-17 Bomber during World War II. And the most crucial new element was the alien entity, the Xenomorph. O'Bannon had been working for Chilean cult director Alejandro Jodorowksy's adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, along with surrealist Swiss artist H.R. Giger. Disturbed and fascinated by Giger's macabre "biomechanical" drawings (especially his 1976 painting "Necronom IV"), O'Bannon envisioned an alien monster unlike anything ever seen onscreen before. Both O'Bannon and director Ridley Scott were also inspired which led to the creation of the Xenomorph's nasty, but incredibly memorable, appearance. The final creation is a wedge-headed, metallic, bipedal creature with acid for blood, a scorpion tail, and a nasty habit of thrusting its eggs down an unsuspecting human's mouth until they hatch and violently tear open their host's stomach to escape. The classic maneuver was reportedly inspired by Francis Bacon's 1944 painting “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion,”

When the movie came out in 1979, fans were thrilled with the blend of creepy horror and hi-tech science fiction, and with Sigourney Weaver's tough heroine Ellen Ripley, who becomes a grizzled survivor of multiple alien encounters. Originally intended to be the Xenomorph's last victim, the movie's ending was changed so that Ripley is the sole survivor (along with Jonesy the cat). The movie ends with Ripley blasting the Xenomorph out into space and blowing it up with the ship's engine. The movie was also a huge influence on horror films with the scene where an alien bursts out of John Hurt's chest. Aside from Hurt and Scott, the scene was a total surprise to the rest of the cast--and most movie audiences. The first Alien movie's success made it a cultural touchstone, spawned the franchise, jump-started Sigourney Weaver's acting career, and influenced innumerable movies, television shows, and video games. The Xenomorph, called the "perfect organism" by one hapless character, has appeared in a total of eight movies so far: three sequels, two crossover films with another human-hunting alien, The Predator, and two prequels. Revered directors James Cameron and David Fincher came on board to direct the sequels, and Weaver would appear in three more Alien films.