20th Century Studios Developing “Alien: Romulus” Sequel
Earlier this summer, Disney released the latest instalment in the 20th Century Studios franchise, “Alien”, which was called “Alien: Romulus”.
The new film tells the story of what happened to a group of young space colonisers, who while scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
“Alien: Romulus” stars Cailee Spaeny (“Civil War”), David Jonsson (“Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy”), Archie Renaux (“Shadow and Bone”), Isabela Merced (“The Last of Us”), Spike Fearn (“Aftersun”), and Aileen Wu. It was directed by Fede Alvarez, who previously worked on “Evil Dead”.
So far, the film has pulled in over $350 million at the box office, and since it was made on an $80 million budget, which means it’s likely already pulled in a profit before taking into consideration of additional revenue from its release on digital platforms and physical media, licensing and streaming advertising.
Originally, “Alien: Romulus” was being created for a straight-to-Hulu/Disney+ release, but with Disney refocusing on theatrical releases after the pandemic, the additional income from the theatrical release highlights the benefit of releasing movies in cinemas before sending them to streaming services.
During a recent interview with 20th Century Studios executive, Steve Asbell, explained how the change happened:
It was started as a streaming movie because we started development when we were in COVID and it wasn’t clear what our strategy was going to be theatrical or streaming. At the time we had different sorts of budget categories for streaming, which we were always circumspect about not wanting to spend too much money on streaming movies. We didn’t know quite yet how they would perform based on the metrics. And the truth is we started it hoping that theatrical would return to some measure of normal. But we made that film and, frankly, every other film we’ve made for streaming, with the same care and curation as we do our theatrical movies.
Following on from the success of the “Alien: Romulus”, Steve was asked what’s next for “Alien”, to why he replied:
We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.
The next significant change for the “Alien” franchise is set to take place next year, when FX will release the first series on the franchise, set years before the events of the original film called, “Alien: Earth”, which will be released on Hulu and Disney+ in 2025.
Disney is also going to be releasing a new instalment in the “Predator” franchise “Badlands” in cinemas next year and Steve was asked if they were going to do another “Alien Vs Predator” movie, to which he replied:
Probably. It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.
Roger’s Take: With over half a dozen “Alien” movies released in the past fifty years, I generally have the feeling that another “Alien” film is always going to be coming at some point, especially as Disney loves its brands and franchises, so it’s not a huge shock to hear the success of “Romulus” has resulted in talks over another one. I also think the idea of another “Predator Vs Alien” movie will probably be something we will see eventually, but 20th Century Studios might want to spend a bit longer establishing both sides of the franchise.
You can catch the previous “Alien” movies on Hulu and Hulu On Disney+ in the United States and on Disney+ internationally.
Would you like to see another “Alien: Romulus”? Let me know on social media!