Alien: Romulus stirs controversy with CGI resurrection (SPOILERS)

Director Fede Álvarez’s contribution to the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus (you can read our review HERE), has only been in theatres for a matter of hours, but it has already stirred up controversy on social media. That’s because one of the film’s cast members has been dead for several years, so Álvarez and his collaborators decided to resurrect them with CGI… and judging by the reactions online, this CGI isn’t exactly convincing. If you don’t want to know who this CGI-resurrected actor is, you should click out of this article now, because there are SPOILERS below.

When Alien: Romulus was announced near the start of 2022, it was said that Álvarez pitched the idea to Ridley Scott years ago and it stuck with Scott (apparently mainly due to how Álvarez wanted to deal with androids in the story). So in late 2021, he called Álvarez 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 also been said that the story Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues crafted for Alien: Romulus is not connected to the other films in the Alien franchise – but it’s not ignoring any of the other entries, either. Álvarez has been clear about the fact that his story takes place within the established franchise continuity. In fact, it slots right in between the events of Alien and Aliens. It has the following 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 cast includes Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (The Batman), and Aileen Wu (Away from Home). Merced has previously said there’s a scene in the film that’s so disgusting that a lot of viewers will have to look away. 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. It has received an R rating for bloody violent content and language.

Now, here’s where we’ll get into SPOILERS territory. The CGI-resurrected cast member who’s not mentioned in the cast list is Ian Holm, who played the android Ash in the original Alien. Ash isn’t back in Alien: Romulus, but the filmmakers have chosen to use a CGI likeness of Holm, who passed away in 2020, to bring an android character called Rook to the screen – and some viewers are not happy about it. For example:

Speaking with The National, Álvarez revealed that Ridley Scott played a major part in bringing Holm’s likeness into the movie. “We came up with the idea with Ridley when we realised that the only actor who had never made a second appearance as an android was Ian Holm, who we both believe is the best in the franchise. We thought it’s so unfair that he never came back when Michael Fassbender did it a couple times and Lance Henriksen did it more than a couple of times. So we thought he deserved that. The first thing I did was to call and chat with his widow and make sure that she could make sure the kids and all his close family was OK with the idea. We hired an actor named Daniel Betts, a British actor, who’s amazing. He lent his voice to this performance and we used the animatronic and some CG to bring him to life. I think it was done with a lot of respect to the memory of Ian Holm, and we worked with his family to ensure that.” The director went on to say that he doesn’t see turning Betts into Holm with CGI as being much different from actors playing roles under makeup and prosthetics. “I don’t think it’s much different to when Gary Oldman puts on some make-up and pretends to be Churchill. It’s a likeness that you embrace. It would be way cheaper to just hire one actor, honestly. To do it this way, you have to hire like 70 people and use a lot of resources to make it work. So I thought it made sense for us.“

What do you think of Ian Holm getting a CGI resurrection in Alien: Romulus? Let us know by leaving a comment below.