Bursting Alien For A New Generation, Interview with Alien: Romulus Writer/Director Fede Alvarez

We have just uploaded the 190th episode of the Alien vs. Predator Galaxy Podcast! For this episode, Alien vs. Predator Galaxy's own Corporal Hicks and RidgeTop had the pleasure of being joined by Alien: Romulus writer and director Fede Alvarez to dig into the latest addition to the Alien pantheon!
We talk discuss the influence of the wider lore, those controversial dialogue callbacks, introducing a new generation to the Alien franchise and plenty more!

[@paulj5336]

This is eaisly the best interview for this movie that's come out. Hands down. Well done lads and thank you Fede. 👏👏👏

[@RedSeaGull]

Love Fede, great guy and a true artist. I rank Romulus just under the original Alien

[@conorbrosnahan5464]

Sunday afternoon sorted! Sad Fede didn't do a commentary for the bluray though, all his previous films have one.

[@MrSnaztastic]

The callback argument, specifically dialogue, is an interesting one. "Get away from her" could've worked if the line delivery wasn't so clunky, honestly. It feels like recycling the few elements that have entered the general cultural lexicon as a shortcut. On the other hand, thing's like "busy little creatures" are so obscure and out of place that it makes I think a lot of people annoyed they couldn't just come up with NEW lines that have the potential to be iconic? Writer's strike or no, less wouldve been more here.

[@ryangettig274]

There were 6-7 callback lines-like Robert Myer Burnett said-near plagiarism-God,come up with your own material.

[@drudi1234]

he seems like a pretty fantastic guy. Love that he made the high pitched voice comment from Curb your Enthusiasm about people telling him they liked it with a high pitch voice. You know they are lying LOL

[@numbernine5044]

Brilliant interview! Especially since we can gobble this up before any 4k/bluray commentary hits the shelf.

[@andrewnall1931]

Amazing interview! This is an absolute treat to listen to! Loved Alien Romulus! Awesome!

[@paulothx138]

Epic podcast, congratulations, guys !

[@shogunboxe]

Fede, I take my hat off to you. You managed to make a great movie far beyond everyone's expectations, being faithful and expanding the best saga there is. You are the man to continue this franchise. Arriba Fede carajo!

[@ryangettig274]

Well,you are certainly correct in the regard that it was a balancing act.:)

[@saintmanuel]

Great interview. I like the way he is able to talk about the franchise as well as his own movie. Quite down to earth, honest and critical about the craft and the limits.

[@AbirTarafdar]

Oh nice. What a treat. I really like Fede. Could listen to him all day.

[@davidmoore7668]

Great interview, thanks. He’s definitely the right guy to take this franchise forward imo. Please give him an opportunity to make another :)

[@maceharris7656]

ALIEN: ROMULUS is definitely one of my favorite movies of 2024. I loved the characters, especially Rain and Andy. The movie was scary, but it was also thrilling and exciting at the same time. My favorite scenes was the chest busters chase and the anti-gravity fight. All around I thought the movie was what I wanted in a new entry in the ALIEN franchise. My rating for Alien: ROMULUS is 9.8/10. It's my third favorite movie in the franchise after ALIEN (1979) and ALIENS (1986), which were both 10/10s by the way. Well done podcast.

[@hanniballkingGaming]

Dope interview!! Thank you Fede!! 🔥🔥🔥

[@Genjitsu17]

That was fantastic. Thank you!!

[@bobilly]

Fede is a class act. Liked him on the top 100 horror moments series too. He made a great Alien film 👍

[@danielb6803]

I could listen to Fede shoot the xeno-semen-shit for hours. I am so jealous you guys got to do this interview with him. Thanks so much for this.

[@BonusEggs4Sale]

Fuck yeah finally!

[@AidilAfham]

I love how this is just a geek straightening oht of the lore

[@The.Crawling.Chaos.]

Great interview! Very informative and fun. Fede seems like a really nice guy! 🙂 Thank you for bringing us this golden nugget 🙂

[@Manovgreatworth]

Great interview! Everyone should like and subscribe to this channel and share too. Thanks heaps guys 👍🏻

[@ultave]

The black goo is Xenomorph semen.... kinda crazy but it works thematically, makes sense within lore. Works with what the TTRPG says too.

[@rhuulu110]

Makes me wonder what a male xenomorph looks like since we have mostly seen queens and drones across the extended universe.

[@ultave]

@@rhuulu110 I think the idea of male and female Xenomorphs is really stupid. Same with Yautja, but that's a different story.

[@mikerude5073]

​@@rhuulu110They don't need males in the traditional sense, but there easily could be huge monster variants, independent of host species, much larger and more terrifying thay anything we've seen so far.

[@rhuulu110]

@@mikerude5073 My mind went to spiders or ants where the males are smaller and ether die or are eaten by the female after mating.

[@hudson01blue]

Listened while driving my lorry !! Well done guys!! Absolute quality interview and what a gentleman Fede is and also a complete nerd like rest of us !! 😂

[@nanodeath2.0]

In my opinion Fede makes a better argument for not having the recycled lines in his defense of using them. Still enjoyed the movie and plan on buying a physical copy.

[@teletranoats7491]

Regarding Narcisus......What Did Fede mean about "someone" jumping into it? Jumping??????????? who? Ripley? that´s crazy!!!

[@teletranoats7491]

Gosh !! Never thought I would watch a Moviepodcast for about 2.30hs. That´s my first time experiencing it !!!! CONGRATS

[@teletranoats7491]

I hope to see Ripley in the upcoming comic book. We are excited to find out what really happened inside the Romulus Station. Disney is stupid. Why not make a 45-minute movie detailing what took place there? As for Ripley, I wonder what might have happened to her inside Romulus. Was she awakened? Did they keep her in cryo? Was she conscious the entire time? (That’s crazy, considering she doesn’t mention anything about the events in Romulus during Aliens). Was she lobotomized before Narcissus got disconnected from the station? Did they experiment on her? Why did they keep her alive? Did she fight the big chap inside the station by leading a small squad of military soldiers into Romulus? I’m also curious about why the station was divided into two, as in the movie it shows two different dates under the names Romulus and Remus. It looks like one part was built first to carry out experiments on xenos, and then years later, another one was attached, which was essentially built for testing the experiments (scary, by the way). Weyland-Yutani didn’t want to expose Earth, so I’m guessing that Romulus is nothing but a mousetrap, going from colony to colony, harvesting “curious people” who happen to board the station and then get attacked and used as guinea pigs.Or maybe this is the biggest nonsense ever, and the station was simply infested by xenos, who crossed into the safe zone (from Romulus to Remus) and wreaked havoc in that station. Was Ripley there in Remus all that time and managed to escape? Who knows.

[@jaegershoemaker8959]

Ridley Scott would never do something like this.

[@teletranoats7491]

Fede gave us a lot in this podcast but forgot to answer the ultimate questions of all. How the hell did the Big chap manage to navigate and stay close to the Nostromo Debrees? Did he love that ship much to a point of hanging out close to it even after cocooned itself? maybe he did that on purpose knowning other humans would come soon ? crazy!!!!

[@odiedodieuk]

I’d love to know who’s idea all the references were. They were horrible! I hope it was studio.

[@jprobertson-e1j]

I just love the fact that Fede is a fan of Metallica/Sepultura as well as the Alien franchise.

[@Tomb_of_Dracula]

Epic!

[@LSB44446]

Fede seems like a cool dude.

[@eldritchmorgasm4018]

Very interesting, but he presented everything way better than it was. Yes, "Romulus" does look, sound & feel ALIEN(S), but the characters are not that impressive. Also, the creature, as in the xeno, doesn't look creepy because it has some human-like details. The legs, that's just showing me there's a stunt-guy in a suit, which is totaly fine, especialy for 70s/80s movies. Making it as mystery-box-ish as possible is kinda lazy, never showing/explaining more IS lazy. You can do that without demystifying everything, but OMFG, for the love of god, push the franchise forward. Copying stuff & presenting it with a slightly different context has to end.

[@dreamingorca]

"...for the next generation...for a modern audience": yawn. Translates as "rehash, repurpose and regurgitate classic, brilliantly produced movies made decades ago into a new movie specifically catering to Gen-Z brats that hadn't even heard of Ridley Scott and clap like seals on TikTok for likes. The end of our beloved Alien franchise goes down amidst rapturous applause for absolute cringe.

[@UltraSpesh]

nah it rules

[@florisvdwetering]

As someone from the first years of Gen-Z I'm so tired of these butthurt millennials who act like everything was better in their days and that new generations can't enjoy their franchises. See I grew up with the Alien movies. I love Alien and Aliens. Aliens is imo the best movie I've ever watched. But I could tear these movies apart if I really wanted to. Why did they have to go through the trouble in Alien to have a towing vessel pick up the Xenomorph with this android agent on board? Why not just send a dedicated science vessel full of androids loyal to the company to do the job? In Aliens nobody found out about the derelict even though in Alien there was a constant SOS signal coming from it? Alien: Isolation patched up that plothole. Why did they only think about sending down a second dropship once the reactor was going critical? Why did Ripley have to suggest that? Bishop and the marines should've known that. Etc etc This movie is great apart from a few issues like the face on Rook and the callback lines. But that doesn't bring it any lower than an 8/10 for me.

[@HiMyNameIsDannny]

You sound like a bitter old man who's scared he's being passed by. What Fede said about attracting new audiences to keep old franchises alive is right. Romulus is one of the highest grossing Alien movies ever and has pumped life into the franchise, not ended it. You hating it doesn't change that fact.

[@adam-v7w-w9i]

Callbacks are for consoomers. It's a shame they're being catered to for monetary gain, because Romulus has so much going for it - artistically it doesn't need any of that. As far as money goes, hardcore fans like me are pretty hardcore about going out to see a film like this 4-5 times in IMAX.

[@mike595]

This man made a stupid mistake helping Ridley to destroy an already tarnished franchise. Romulus made no sense, and retcons Aliens in every way.

[@freedomwriter9688]

Look people a hater who knows nothing he is claiming about

[@UltraSpesh]

nah it rules

[@mikerude5073]

It could have done without a couple homage 1 liners, but I didn't see it retconning Aliens.

[@th3lonef0x4]

How on earth does it retcon anything in Aliens?

[@ryangettig274]

🛶🌲☄🌲Well Played,Hicks N' Ridgetop-Saving for a rainy nite,but if my name was Federico?I'd be all over & owning that coolness!&So would my ladyfriends:)🛶🌲☄🌲

[@ryangettig274]

The band/music analogy is spot on correct.When GNR came out with Use Your Illusion in 1991,I was like who the fuck is this band?THey're not Funky anymore?THe guitars are buried?PIanos?Keyboards?Shit, I bought Appetite the day it came out & was so disappointed....