Alien: Romulus

“Alien: Romulus,” the next installment of the “Alien” franchise, brought blood, gore and even a real-life chestburster to San Diego Comic-Con.

Director Fede Alvarez along with cast Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu appeared in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday to discuss the new “Alien” film, which hits theaters on Aug. 16.

The film takes place between the events of Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and James Cameron’s popular sequel “Aliens.” The plot describes “a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

In another clip, Spaeny’s Rain Carradine is stuck in an escape ship with Aileen Wu’s Navarro, who, to both their horror, realize she has an alien within her—which soon bursts out of her chest.

Just when Hall H thought it had been treated (or terrified?) enough, during questions from the audience, one attendee asked if those on stage ever have nightmares about the aliens in the film. Alvarez began to share he did, in fact, have nightmares when the exhibit hall went black. Red lights and sirens took over Hall H followed by animatronic facehuggers scuttling across the stage and an actor succumbing to a chestbuster.

The skit was followed by one final clip of Spaeny’s Rain trying to escape a hallway of the ship where a fully formed Xenomorph had just hatched. All attendees were given alien facehugger masks, and posed for a massive Hall H photo with the cast and Alvarez.

“I think we all understood the pressure behind it,” Merced, who plays Kay in the film, shared of joining the iconic franchise.

Jonsson added that the cast’s goal was to “disassociate from the pressure” of being part of the “Alien” universe.

Katie Jones for Variety

As much as paying tribute to the films before was part of “Alien: Romulus” Director Fede Álvarez’s intent, he noted how he wanted the film to stand apart on its own and “do its own thing,” saying how he wanted to “modernize” the series for contemporary audiences.

“We kept a lot of the perfect elements about those original movies untouched because we didn’t need to improve them, but then we had a lot of new stuff. That’s what makes it modern and new,” he said. Hopefully, it takes its place among the other ones, and for me, it’s never a bad time in theatres when you’re watching an ‘Alien’ movie. It was such a joyous experience watching it for the first time.”

The first clip showed a bevy of terrifying glimpses of the newest “Alien” colonists coming face to face with Xenomorphs, facehuggers and chestbursters, with a sinister rendition of the poem “I Have A Rendezvous With Death” playing at the start. David Jonsson’s Andy is seen trying to be repaired with parts from another synthetic that was ripped in half. As the colonists try to fix him, they realize they’re in a room filled with alien pods that begin to hatch and attack the crew.

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