Isabela Merced, who can be seen in this weekend’s release Madame Web and also has a role in the currently-filming second season of The Last of Us, is one of the star’s up director Fede Alvarez’s upcoming contribution to the Alien franchise, the feature film Alien: Romulus, which is on track for an August 16, 2024 theatrical release. Merced is doing the press rounds to promote Madame Web, and during a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter she teased that Alien: Romulus features a scene that’s so disgusting, a lot of viewers will have to look away from the screen. Given that this is an Alien movie from the filmmaker who previously brought us movies like Evil Dead 2013 and Don’t Breathe, the idea of it featuring such a scene definitely makes sense to me.
Alvarez directed the new Alien film from a screenplay he wrote with his frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues. 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 Sayagues crafted for this movie is not connected to the other films in the Alien franchise. 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.”
In addition to Merced, the characters are played by Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Industry), 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.
When asked if Alien: Romulus is a two-hander between her and Spaeny, Merced said, “It ends up being a little bit complicated, obviously, as all Alien movies do, however, yeah, you’ll see us together at times. When we were doing reshoots, Fede Álvarez gave me the iPad where he watches playback, and he had the movie pulled up. So I told him I wanted to see parts of it, and he showed it to me. I was the one holding the iPad, and there were ten people around me watching it on the iPad. So there’s a scene that I’m in, and they all had to turn away. Not one person stayed looking at that iPad because it was so disgusting. And I was watching it like this … (Merced pretends to hold an iPad with a mesmerized look on her face.) I was so excited. (Laughs.) I love sci-fi, I do. So he let me watch half the movie on the iPad. I said [to Fede], “If the iPad is heavy, I can carry it for you. I can hold it.” (Laughs.) So I’m really, really excited for that one. Again, I’m lucky enough to be a part of these projects with the best of the best. I can’t believe it. I’m so in shock, and I don’t know when I’m going to wake up.“
This new Alien movie is coming to us from Momentum and 20th Century Studios, with Ridley Scott producing through his Scott Free banner.
Are you looking forward to Alien: Romulus and this disgusting scene Isabela Merced was talking about? Let us know by leaving a comment below.