xenopmorphs

We got our first look at Alien: Romulus, the ninth installment in the sci-fi franchise, in March with a brief teaser. That footage showed promise that horror director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) could fulfill his intention to bring this standalone film back to the franchise’s stripped-down space horror roots. Now we have the full trailer, and we’re pretty confident he’s kept that promise. It looks as gory, intense, and delightfully terrifying as the seminal first two films in the franchise.

(Spoilers for Alien and Aliens below.)

As previously reported, Alien: Romulus is set between the events of Alien and Aliens (and is not related to FX/Hulu’s Alien prequel series slated to premiere next year). That is, after Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo, destroyed the killer xenomorph and launched herself into space in the ship’s lifeboat—along with the ginger cat, Jonesy—and before she woke up after 57 years in hypersleep and battled more xenomorphs while protecting the young orphan, Newt (Carrie Henn). Per the short-and-sweet official premise: “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.”

Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Pacific Rim: Uprising) stars as Rain Carradine, Isabela Merced (The Last of Us) plays Kay, and David Jonsson (Murder Is Easy) plays Andy. Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone) plays Tyler, Spike Fearn (Aftersun) plays Bjorn, and Aileen Wu plays Navarro. But we aren’t likely to see iconic badass Ellen Ripley (immortalized by Sigourney Weaver) in the film. At this point in the timeline, she’s in the middle of her 57-year stasis with Jonesy as her escape shuttle travels through space toward her fateful encounter with a xenomorph queen.

The teaser offered little more than panicked calls for help (“Get it away from me!”), piercing screams, and a shot of a gore-spattered wall, along with a few frenetic shots of panicked crew members fleeing the alien xenomorph that is no doubt delighted to have fresh hosts in which to hatch its deadly offspring. There was also some special footage screened at CinemaCon in April featuring the expected face-huggers and chest-bursters.

The new trailer opens with ominous heavy footsteps (which punctuate the footage throughout) as Tyler asks Rain if this is really where she wants to spend the rest of her life. It’s unclear which place “this” refers to, but Rain definitely wants to escape, and Tyler has found what he claims is their “only ticket out of here”: becoming space colonizers, one presumes.

Cue the spooky “haunted house in space” vibes as Rain, Tyler, and their fellow colonists explore the aforementioned derelict space station—and get far more than they bargained for, including being attacked by face huggers. We also get a shot of Navarro’s horror as a chest-burster hammers against her rib cage. Kudos to whoever edited this trailer to remove the sound for the final 30 seconds, right after lettering spells out the classic tagline (“In space, no one can hear you scream”). It makes Rain’s final quiet line (“Are you sure you wanna do this?”) and the sudden burst of screaming at the end that much more effective.

Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16, 2024.

Listing image by 20th Century Studios