Romulus' Is a Better Sequel to 'Prometheus' Than 'Covenant' Ever Was -

In 1979, Ridley Scott changed sci-fi horror forever with Alien. It was the ultimate monster movie, a tale that was part haunted house film and part slasher, all the while creating one of the greatest action heroes of all time in Sigourney Weaver‘s Ellen Ripley. Scott stepped away after that first film, leading to James Cameron making Aliens in 1986. After several more sequels and an Alien vs. Predator spinoff, Scott returned to the franchise with 2012’s Prometheus. Although it was an excellent movie, many fans were disappointed by the lack of xenomorphs. To correct this, his follow-up, 2017’s Alien: Covenant, was a mashup of the past and present that delivered on the alien monster mayhem. However, what resulted was a clunky movie where the story established in Prometheus is pushed to the background in favor of a more traditional Alien movie. It took until 2024 with Fede Álvarez‘s Alien: Romulus to find a way to continue the story of Prometheus that better incorporated the horror we wanted to see.

‘Prometheus’ Is Vastly Different From Other ‘Alien’ Movies

The Alien franchise was in a bad place after 2007’s Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, so the news that Ridley Scott was coming back to right the ship was exciting. Prometheus was filled with Hollywood heavyweights like Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce, showing that this was a movie that would be taken seriously. Moviegoers paid attention, leading to a $403 million worldwide haul, but critics and fans were mixed on what they thought of the final product.

In his four-star written review, Roger Ebert raved about the “seamless blend of story, special effects, and pitch-perfect casting,” but many fans were disappointed. Sure, Prometheus was absolutely stunning to look at and well-acted, but it got so bogged down in mythology, looking into the origins of humanity with Engineers and the mysterious black goo, that it forgot what made the films so iconic in the first place. It’s not until the very end, with the birth of a xenomorph, that we finally see the iconic monster.

Ridley Scott Tried to Correct His Wrongs With ‘Alien: Covenant’

With Prometheus, Ridley Scott purposely wanted to get away from the xenomorphs. In 2014, he told Yahoo that they wouldn’t be part of the next movie, but in 2017, that changed. For one, the Alien title was back with the name of Alien: Covenant, and the xenomorphs returned as well, wreaking havoc and killing humans like they had in past movies. So what happened? In a follow-up interview with Yahoo to promote the movie, Ridley Scott said:

“What changed was the reaction to ‘Prometheus’, which was a pretty good ground zero reaction… It went straight up there, and we discovered from it that [the fans] were really frustrated. They wanted to see more of the original [monster] and I thought he was definitely cooked, with an orange in his mouth. So I thought: ‘Wow, OK, I’m wrong’.”

Ridley Scott's New Alien Movie Is Just What The Franchise Needs After Romulus

Ridley Scott’s New Alien Movie Is What We Need After ‘Romulus’

Our chests burst with love for the franchise.

Scott added that you’re not a sensible filmmaker if you don’t take the fans into account, so that’s what he did. However, this led to a disjointed film that brought in David (Fassbender) from Prometheus while also telling a familiar monster movie with a new cast. Scott was trying to make both himself and his fans happy, even though they wanted different things. It’s not a bad movie, but everything you see with the xenomorphs is reminiscent of what we’ve seen before, as if we’re getting the greatest hits. There’s nothing new to it, so it’s strange that Ridley Scott wanted to be a part of it. Fassbender playing both David and Walter is interesting, but it’s told in such small tidbits, like it’s being rushed so Scott can get the audience back to what they truly want. Alien: Covenant was part old-school Alien movie and part Prometheus sequel without fully committing to either idea.

‘Alien: Romulus’ Properly Combined the Past and Present

Close-up of a bloody Isabela Merced as Kay screaming and looking down in Alien: Romulus — Image via 20th Century Studios

It took seven years, but in 2024, Alien: Romulus finally figured out how to do it. Fede Álvarez had already achieved this for another horror franchise with his 2013 reboot of Evil Dead by taking a story we knew and making it feel both familiar and refreshingly new. Alien: Romulus is a love letter to the past, with the movie taking place between the events of Alien and Aliens, Ripley and the original xenomorph being mentioned, and the introduction of another young, badass heroine, this time named Rain (Cailee Spaeny). Unlike Prometheus, the focus is not on lore and mythology, but on an original story that, instead of forcing Prometheus into the narrative, finds a way to naturally weave it into the plot.

We learn more about the black goo, etc., not from having it explained to us, or being a subplot, but by being combined with our traditional monster movie. The desolate spaceship we encounter has a lab that focused on the black goo. There’s the connection to Prometheus, but it doesn’t get weighed down by it. Weyland Yutani wants the stuff, and it’s woven into the haunted house feel of the ship, like the first movie, and the relationship between Rain and Andy (David Jonsson). This is still a deeply moving character-driven movie above all else, which was lost at times in the chaos of Alien: Covenant.

And at the end, we get to see it all come together with that terrifying scene of the black goo resulting in Kay (Isabela Merced) giving birth to a monstrous xenomorph hybrid. That’s way more effective than any scene with David or the Engineers. Alien: Romulus is showing us the effects of what we learned in Prometheus in the most tragic and heartbreaking way possible. We’re not just seeing what can happen in small moments like in Alien: Covenant; we’re feeling it deeply. Alien: Romulus is not embarrassed by the fan disappointment of the latter movie, but embraces what works and makes it effective by integrating into a well-written horror story. Fede Álvarez gave fans what we wanted, but he didn’t forget what Ridley Scott started.