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‘Embrace Them All’: Alien: Romulus Director Fede Alvarez Sheds Light on the Importance of Previous Sequels
Director Fede Álvarez has crafted a cinematic love letter to the Alien franchise with his latest installment, Alien: Romulus brimming with nods, references, and Easter eggs.
Alien: Romulus, the latest installment in the Alien saga, directed by Fede Álvarez, masterfully weaves together elements from the series’ core themes. The film is filled with references and Easter eggs that will delight long-time fans, offering a nostalgic journey through the franchise. Álvarez, known for his reverential approach to cinematic history, has acknowledged that his goal was to create a film that respects the Alien saga as a whole rather than focusing on any single entry in the series. As he put it, his task was akin to a famous quote from The Lord of the Rings: to honor the legacy of the Alien franchise without fixating on any specific work within it.
In an interview with Variety, Álvarez claimed that Alien: Romulus is, at its core, an homage to the entire franchise. As much as this may have been what he wanted some individuals to see, he only aimed to allude to every other film in the series—the notion actually brought to life through the tone and premise of this movie. Indeed, audiences might be surprised just by how much this movie emotionally identifies itself with Aliens and Prometheus, not to mention the return of an important character from the original Alien as a secondary antagonist.
Álvarez revealed that the film is full of Easter eggs, including some he slipped in despite an initial hesitation from the studio executives. According to him, "Even the studio was like, 'Are we sure we want to go there?' And I was like, 'Yeah, I truly love them all,'" which goes to show how much he really wanted to pay homage to the entire franchise.
Álvarez set his sights on a film that was to reunify the Alien universe, a universe fleshed out through not only films but also video games and graphic novels. His vision is one of a story working much like "the one ring that bonds them all together," as in the very famous line from The Fellowship of the Ring. This attitude guided him to a decision to fully accept every Alien saga chapter rather than to fall into the trend of disregarding certain films. Álvarez felt that by ignoring those films, he would be showing disrespect to their directors, who made an effort with them. He added, "We need to embrace them all." Compared with Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus is going to add new reveals for lore related to the Xenomorphs, while its ending has nodded in a way to Alien: Resurrection.
There are also plenty of references to previous movies; as Álvarez explained, "I wanted to capture what every movie stood for. He pointed out that even the films that did not particularly work for him had made a strong mark. Unlike most movies, which start to get hazy shortly after viewing, Álvarez believed that the Alien films needed recognition and a link in the new installment. There are now eight films in the Alien saga—two of which are the Alien vs. Predator spinoffs—and Álvarez tried to put all those feelings into Alien: Romulus.
Álvarez remembers the impact Alien had on him and other movie fans and describes his goal as not only to imitate the visual style but to convey the same emotions he felt while watching those movies for the first time. He saw that, over time, people began to over-intellectualize what had made these films great, very often missing the point. He explained that when he was young, just entering his early teens, much of the excitement offered by the movies was in the action: the guns, explosions, and violence. These are aspects Álvarez works to reproduce in Alien: Romulus, which, by the way, has been receiving a great reception from critics and audiences, ranking the movie in third place in the whole franchise.
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