Fede Alvarez’s Alien movie rounds out cast with production kicking off next week

After Alien: Covenant underperformed at the box office six years ago, it wasn’t clear if the long-running franchise would return, but you can’t keep a good Xenomorph down. Fede Alverez (Evil Dead) is set to take the helm of a new Alien movie which stars Cailee Spaeny (Mare of Easttown), and THR has revealed the rest of the cast.

The outlet announced that David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (The Batman), and Aileen Wu (Away from Home) have joined the cast of the new Alien movie. It was also revealed yesterday that Isabela Merced (Rosaline) had signed on as well. We should be hearing more before too long, as production on the project is slated to kick off in Budapest on March 9th. Fede Alverez directs from a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues.

Not much is known about the new Alien movie, but it’s said that Cailee Spaeny will be playing a Ripley-type character. The cast is also skewing younger than usual as it deals with “a group of young people on a distant world find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.” Ridley Scott is producing the project, and Fede Alvarez actually pitched him a take for a new Alien movie years ago. Scott remembered the idea and later called him to ask if he was still willing to make the movie. 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell said that they picked up the project “purely off the strength of Fede’s pitch” and teased that it’s “just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before.“

Like the recent Predator sequel, Prey, this new Alien movie is also destined for the Hulu streaming service. Steve Asbell said it would be the best thing for the project. Rather than tone down any edginess for a mainstream theatrical audience, Asbell noted, “It’s not a film that has to be all things to all people with those gargantuan budgets. They get to be authentically what they are. And this is closer to its genre roots.” This new Alien movie isn’t the only Alien project in development for Hulu as they’re also a TV series set to be developed by Fargo creator Noah Hawley. The project is still coming together but could debut on FX on Hulu as early as 2023.