It’s finally here! After being teased for months, our first peek at Fede Alvarez’s all-new addition to the xenomorph universe, Alien: Romulus, is here! While the 60 second teaser trailer embedded above doesn’t give us too much of an idea what the film will be like, the blood-covered pod and glimpses of our heroine clutching a pulse rifle make this look like a hard-R rated throwback to both Alien and Aliens.

Here’s the studio’s official logline:

The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. 

The film’s cast includes Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) and David Jonsson (Industry), as well as Isabela Merced (Madame Web), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (The Batman), and Aileen Wu (Away from Home). Spaeny has previously revealed that the story takes place between the events of the original Alien and its follow-up Aliens. Merced has said there’s a scene in the film that’s so disgusting that a lot of viewers will have to look away, so that goes along with the “graphic and gruesome” description. “Graphic and gruesome” is what we expected from this movie as soon as it was announced that it was being made by the director of Evil Dead 2013 and Don’t Breathe.

When the project was announced near the start of 2022, it was said that Alvarez pitched this idea to Ridley Scott years ago. Whatever the idea was, it stuck with Scott. So in late 2021, he called Alvarez and asked if he still wanted to make an Alien movie. Clearly, the answer was yes. 20th Century Studios division president Steve Asbell told The Hollywood Reporter that they picked up the project “purely off the strength of Fede’s pitch. It was just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before.“

It has been said that the story Alvarez and his frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues crafted for Alien: Romulus is not connected to the other films in the Alien franchise. An early description said it will show us what happens when “a group of young people on a distant world find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.” The Hollywood Reporter noted, “as opposed to the other movies which focused on adults in corporate, militaristic and scientific roles, this now-ninth installment of the franchise will focus on a group of young people. On a distant colony, the group finds themselves in a fight for their lives with the titular alien, a creature known as a Xenomorph, whose race propagates by implanting eggs into people’s stomachs via face-huggers, with the juveniles eventually violently bursting out of the host’s chest.”

This new Alien movie is coming to us from Momentum and 20th Century Studios, with Ridley Scott producing through his Scott Free banner. It hits theaters on August 16th! Find out everything else we know about it right here!

Are you looking forward to Alien: Romulus? What did you think of the teaser trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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