‘Alien: Romulus’ Hall H panel witnesses 6,500 facehugger masks as director Fede Alvarez updates SDCC

Exclusive insights and footage of Alien: Romulus at San Diego Comic-Con's Hall H, promising a fresh take on the franchise.

San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H saw a major event on Friday with a presentation of Alien: Romulus, the latest installment in the Alien franchise and the first under Disney’s 20th Century Studios. Director Fede Álvarez and the main cast provided insights and shared exclusive footage of the upcoming film.

Attendees were shown extended footage featuring Cailee Spaeny and her team of astronauts in a red-lit alien lab-incubator. The scene depicted baby aliens emerging from the walls into water, a nod to the trash-compactor monster from Star Wars. Another clip showed Aileen Wu’s character, Laura, experiencing the series’ iconic chest-bursting scene as a spaceship struggled to take off.

The panel included a live performance where puppeteered facehuggers appeared on stage, followed by an actor simulating an alien bursting from his chest. All 6,500-odd audience members were also given alien facehugger masks.

Set between Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien and James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens, Álvarez explained that the timeline was chosen for stylistic reasons and to introduce fresh faces unassociated with other characters. David Jonsson plays a synthetic robot similar to Michael Fassbender’s characters in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Álvarez emphasized the unpredictability of the film, noting, “Nothing in the first movie tells you that Sigourney (Weaver) was going to survive; anyone can really die.”

Cailee Spaeny shared her emotional audition experience with Álvarez, which left a lasting impression and led to her casting. Álvarez also revealed that the film was shot chronologically to enhance storytelling authenticity.

Álvarez aims to balance honoring the original films while modernizing the series. “We kept a lot of the perfect elements about those original movies untouched because we didn’t need to improve them, but then we had a lot of new stuff. That’s what makes it modern and new,” he stated in an interview with Variety.

Producer Ridley Scott joined via video call, asking Álvarez about new themes in Alien: Romulus. Álvarez highlighted the exploration of siblinghood, a theme not deeply explored in previous films. “One of the things I wanted to explore not seen in the original movies are the real human connections among all the characters. This is the first time you have really close people that really love each other, so when sh*t like this happens, it makes it much more dramatic,” he explained .Álvarez also mentioned the inclusion of psychosexual elements from the original film.