The definitive role of Romulus within the vast, intricate narrative of the Alien franchise is a topic of much debate and speculation.

Key Takeaways

• The alien colonization of Romulus takes place approximately in the year 2142.
• In a nostalgic nod to its roots, Romulus revisits its signature blend of gritty realism and social commentary, this time centering on the struggles of working-class individuals embroiled in a web of manipulative forces beyond their control.
• The film aims to seamlessly blend the eerie, atmospheric tension of Alien with the intense action and suspenseful thrills characteristic of Aliens.

Some existential concerns, such as alien invasions or being suffocated by the weight of capitalist systems, remain eternally pertinent. Without any fanfare or hype, Alien: Romulus marks a significant milestone for the iconic franchise, the first new film to emerge in nearly six years since Alien: Covenant’s release in 2017. The latest film from director Fede Alvarez tells the story of a group of young settlers who infiltrate the abandoned space station Romulus, seeking to salvage its resources. As a result, they inevitably encounter some hostile extraterrestrial beings during their journey.

Spanning thousands of years, from the seeding of human life on Earth to devastatingly human-made catastrophes occurring in the distant past, yet the narrative unfolds across six films set primarily within the 21st and 24th centuries. The original four films in this sci-fi series focus on Ellen Ripley, a human engineer portrayed by Sigourney Weaver, while the final two entries centre on David, an antagonistic android played by Michael Fassbender, created by Weyland-Yutani Company, which employed Ripley and her crewmates in the initial movies.

The overarching connective thread throughout the Alien franchise appears to be the enigmatic and terrifying Xenomorph species.

The character of Ripley is not currently present in Alien: Resurrection, as confirmed by the film’s trailers, nor is David. The thread that binds the Alien franchise together is indeed the Xenomorph, serving as a constant connector across all films, from Romulus to beyond. The film takes place in 2179, a timeframe that aligns with the broader Alien universe. This placement allows for connections to be drawn between the events of this movie and those of other installments within the franchise, enriching the overall narrative. Our team has developed a viable solution and made several well-informed predictions.

When does Alien: Romulus happen?

Timeless themes notwithstanding, certain pivotal years in the Alien franchise’s timeline hold significant importance.

Here is the improved/revised text:

Alien: Romulus unfolds two decades after the original film in the franchise, under the creative direction of Fede Alvarez. The proposed placement of Alien: Covenant between its predecessors is accurate, as it takes place in 2104, bridging the gap between the original Alien (1979) and Aliens (2171). Accordingly, when seeking a specific date, it appears that Alien: Covenant should transpire approximately around 2142.

The new addition to the Alien franchise’s legacy appears poised to revisit its long-standing theme of featuring working-class characters as pawns in the intricate games played by powerful forces that remain largely divorced from their experiences and concerns.

Although the exact release date was unclear, it makes sense for the film to take place earlier in the series’ timeline given its chronology. The upcoming film seems to deliberately distance itself from the sleek, high-tech visuals of Ridley Scott’s recent Alien installments, instead opting for a gritty, worn-down atmosphere reminiscent of the franchise’s 1979 and 1986 entries.

The latest installment in the Alien franchise, Romulus, appears poised to revisit a familiar theme: the exploitation and suffering inflicted upon ordinary individuals by remote, uncaring forces that manipulate their lives. Younger colonists in the movie were unexpectedly confronted with numerous child extraterrestrials at the space station, which was an unintended consequence of a company’s neglect to remove them after abandoning their presence there.

The Alien franchise’s convoluted chronology has left fans befuddled. Let’s break down the events in a linear fashion:

Alien (1979): The original film introduced Ellen Ripley and her battle against the deadly Xenomorph on the Nostromo.

Aliens (1986): Twenty-two years after the events of Alien, Ripley returns to face an even more sinister threat on LV-426.

Alien 3 (1992): Following the events of Aliens, Ripley crash-lands on Fiorina “Fury” 161, where she encounters a new and terrifying breed of Xenomorph.

Alien Resurrection (1997): After being cloned from frozen blood samples in Alien 3, Ripley awakens to find herself part-human, part-Xenomorph hybrid.

The troubled legacy of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise continues to unravel as Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) struggle to find their footing within the cinematic universe.

In the year 2098, a team of scientists, spearheaded by renowned archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw, embarks on an expedition to uncover the origins of intelligent life on Earth, funded by the enigmatic CEO of the Weyland Company, Peter Weyland. Their quest is driven by the pursuit of discovering a superior alien civilization that may have seeded life on our planet. As they pursue their quest, this lead takes them to planet LV-233, a barren world where they discover an ancient alien vessel teeming with mysterious, dark fluid-filled containers and the lifeless body of an Engineer – the very being Shaw had been seeking out.

When a member of the crew is impregnated with an alien organism, a deadly xenomorph is born. As tensions escalate, David’s true intentions come to light, revealing a sinister ulterior motive behind his android existence and tour with Prometheus. While Prometheus draws inspiration from the “Alien” franchise, its focus shifts significantly to explore the intricate dynamics of creation and control, elevating the narrative beyond mere exploitation scenarios.

Eleven years after the events of Prometheus, Alien: Covenant unfolds in 2104, as the crew of the colony ship Covenant descends to the surface of a mystical planet, driven by an inexplicable force to investigate a crashed extraterrestrial vessel on the planet’s floor. The crew of the Covenant is confronted by David, the android survivor from Prometheus, who recounts the catastrophic events that ravaged the once-thriving planet, leaving it a desolate tomb in the wake of harmful publicity directed at a pale “neomorph” alien.

Since the planet’s sudden abandonment remains unclear, David’s reticence has sparked suspicion that extraterrestrial visitors may be involved. While the neomorph appears distinct from its xenomorph counterpart, its design serves a specific purpose. Alien: Covenant lends a nearly biblical twist to Prometheus’ preoccupation with creation. Engineers had achieved the pinnacle of creation when they brought forth both humans and xenomorphs into existence. In a similar yet distinct act of creation, human innovators crafted androids, blurring the lines between creator and created. Meanwhile, David reached a profound realization: he no longer felt compelled to perpetuate this cycle of creation, opting instead for a new path that diverged from the original script.

Alien (1979)

A group of spacefaring truckers, hauling cargo across the galaxy, respond to an emergency distress signal on a desolate moon and uncover a crashed extraterrestrial vessel. Within the depths, they stumble upon the massive, lifeless form of an extraterrestrial navigator – specifically, a xenomorph-creating Engineer from the planet LV-223 – alongside a cluster of eerie, ovular structures that seem to defy explanation.

A facehugger emerges from an egg and affixes itself to a Nostromo officer, ultimately proving fatal as the embryo within begins to gestate, culminating in a gruesome exit from its host’s chest. As the childlike extraterrestrial rapidly matures into a full-fledged Xenomorph, crew members fall prey to its deadly attacks, leaving only Ellen Ripley and the ship’s android, Ash, standing in a desperate bid for survival.

As Weyland-Yutani’s demand for Ash to transport the xenomorph grows more insistent, Ripley intervenes with a resolute determination. While setting a visual tone for the series, Alien also laid the thematic foundation for the franchise’s subsequent installments.

Nervousness surrounding the creative process, particularly in childbirth, stems from a deeper anxiety: the realization that employers only truly value employees for the assets – or “value” – they can acquire on their behalf, rather than genuinely caring about their well-being.

Alien: Romulus (2024)

In 2142, a group of youthful settlers from the outer colonies embark on an adventure to explore the long-abandoned space station, Romulus, with the intention of salvaging its contents. The plans are abruptly disrupted when the crew’s encounters with facehuggers ultimately give rise to their own terrifying xenomorph threat. We’ll have to wait until August 16, 2024, for Romulus’s release, when we can delve into its key themes. According to trailers, the film aims to blur the lines between Alien’s atmospheric horror and Aliens’ thriller elements by shifting the focus to marginalized individuals on society’s lower rungs.

In the sci-fi horror genre, James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) and David Fincher’s Alien 3 (1992) are two iconic films that captivate audiences with their blend of action, suspense, and terror.

In 2179, 57 years after the events of Alien, James Cameron’s Aliens resurrects the story of Ellen Ripley, who awakens from stasis to find herself at the mercy of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation after being rescued by the company. As Ripley warns the crew about the potential threat posed by the alien eggs they discovered on LV-426, her concerns fall on deaf ears, as the team remains focused on their mission to transform the barren moon into a terraforming colony. Ripley, accompanied by a Weyland-Yutani consultant and a contingent of Area Marines, ventures to the colony to investigate why communication with the company has ceased. During this expedition, she encounters deadly xenomorphs, their imposing queen, and an unexpected survivor – Newt, a young girl who managed to outlast the colony’s catastrophic downfall.

The colonists’ investigations reveal a startling truth: their own actions were being monitored by the extraterrestrial beings, who had been quietly terraforming the moon in anticipation of human contact. Meanwhile, Weyland-Yutani’s ruthless corporate interests drive a sinister plot to sacrifice humanity for the sake of capturing and studying xenomorphs in controlled laboratory settings. As the Alien saga evolves into a more intense and thrilling experience, it simultaneously exposes its underlying capitalist commentary with greater clarity. While xenomorphs pose a mortal threat to ordinary individuals, they present a potential opportunity for major corporations to leverage their unique characteristics and resources.

The action unfolds seamlessly from the climax of Aliens as Ripley, accompanied by Newt and the lone surviving space marines, make an emergency landing at Fiorina “Fury” 161, a maximum-security prison planet. Ripley, the sole surviving crew member, finds herself confronting another horrific Alien infestation after a facehurger hiding on her ship implants the deadly creature into a prison dog’s body.

The wrinkle? Within the aftermath of the preceding film, Ripley is unwittingly implanted with an embryo from the Alien Queen, forcing her to confront a deeply personal crisis alongside the daunting task of ensuring the survival of the prisoners on the penal colony. Despite being marred by troubled production, Alien 3 is most notable for its devastating conclusion to Ripley’s narrative, which sees her meet a potentially inescapable fate at the hands of either the deadly aliens or relentless corporate pursuit.

Alien Resurrection (1997)

Till Alien Resurrection, which sets 200 years after Aliens 3 in 2379, reboots Ripley’s story. Solely it’s not the original Ripley from the first film, but rather a genetically engineered clone, designated as Ripley-8, possessing an unexpected fusion of human and Xenomorph DNA. Ripley 8’s allegiances are thrown into doubt when laboratory-grown xenomorphs break free on the Navy science vessel where she was created, forcing her to form an uneasy alliance with a group of mercenaries to survive and prevent the deadly creatures from reaching Earth.