Alien: Romulus will be arriving on the Disney+ service on January 15, an official press release has revealed. The seventh instalment in the main Alien franchise was a hit at the box office, and featured highly in NME’s 20 Best Films of 2024.
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Directed by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus’ story is set between the first two Alien films. Cailee Spaeny stars as one of a group of space colonisers who come face-to-face with the deadly Xenomorph while scavenging a derelict space station. NME’s five-star review described it as being “as thrilling and scary as the original”, and “a movie that comes close to the brilliance of Ridley Scott and James Cameron”.
The film is heavily influenced by the franchise’s beginnings, bringing back the terrifying facehuggers and making numerous references to Alien movies of the past. The director of the first Alien film, Sir Ridley Scott, described it as “a huge film” when he watched an early preview.
Ridley Scott shares the advice he gave to director Fede Álvarez after he watched a cut of #AlienRomulus for the first time pic.twitter.com/XiDJuzyel7
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 13, 2024
The streaming release comes on the heels of the news that David Jonsson, who played android Andy in the movie, has been nominated for BAFTA’s prestigious Rising Star Award for 2025. Previous winners include James McAvoy, Lashana Lynch, and Tom Holland.
The film will join the rest of the saga on the Disney+ service, which already has Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. A TV series, Alien: Earth, created by Noah Hawley (Fargo), is expected some time this year.
It stars Timothy Olyphant (The Mandalorian) and the synopsis reads “when a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat”.
Recently, the franchise’s latest gaming instalment was highly praised, as VR game Alien: Rogue Incursion has received positive early responses from critics. Meanwhile, two Alien movies have featured in the top 20 scariest films of all time according to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
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