Alien Romulus is an upcoming science fiction horror movie that will premiere soon in Malaysian cinemas on 15 August 2024. It’s been 45 years since the very first Alien movie directed by Ridley Scott in 1979, so there’s a lot of history behind this iconic franchise.

Here’s what you should know before watching Alien Romulus:

What Is The Alien Franchise?

As I previously mentioned, the Alien franchise started over 45 years ago when Ridley Scott’s Alien premiered in 1979. It introduced us to the iconic Alien Xenomorphs (the alien monsters/creatures of the franchise) and would later spawn five follow-up movies across the decades, including both sequels and prequels.

The titular Alien Xenomorphs are the stars of the franchise. The xenomorph’s design is credited to the late H. R. Giger. Besides its design, what’s also iconic about the Alien Xenomorphs is its life cycle and how it breeds.

They begin their lives as an egg…

… which hatches a parasitoid larval form known as a facehugger, which then attaches itself to a living host by, as its name suggests, latching onto its face.

The facehugger then “impregnates” the host with an embryo, known as a chestburster. The host will then experience a short period of near-symptomless recovery during which the embryo is in gestation, followed by the sudden and painful eruption of the chestburster from the host’s chest, resulting in their death.

The chestburster is also iconic because it’s part of the franchise’s most legendary and well-known scene.

The chestburster then grows and eventually becomes an adult Alien Xenomorph.

Weyland-Yutani And Synthetics / Androids

What you should also know about the Alien franchise is that there’s a wealthy capitalist mega-corporation that acts as the main catalyst of most of what happens in the franchise. Besides the Alien Xenomorphs, they also serve as the main antagonists of the franchise, even though most of the main characters in the franchise (in almost every movie) will start off as employees of Weyland-Yutani.

Oh, and there are Synthetics or Androids in the Alien franchise. Androids in this franchise are almost indistinguishable from normal human beings. They can easily identify as humans with one big exception; they don’t have red blood. Instead, they have white liquid latex circulating in their bodies, so they bleed ‘white’.

When Does Alien Romulus Take Place In The Timeline

Before the release of Alien Romulus, there are six movies in the Alien franchise:

1. Alien (1979)
2. Aliens (1986)
3. Alien 3 (1992)
4. Alien Resurrection (1997)
5. Prometheus (2012)
6. Alien Covenant (2017)

To simplify things, here is the Alien franchise in chronological order (including Alien Romulus):

1. Prometheus
2. Alien Covenant
3. Alien
4. Alien Romulus
5. Aliens
6. Alien 3
7. Alien Resurrection

So, in terms of the chronological timeline, Alien Romulus takes place between the events of the first Alien movie and Aliens.

What Should You Watch Before Watching Alien Romulus

Since Alien Romulus takes place between the events of the first Alien movie and Aliens, all you need to watch before watching Alien Romulus are Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986).

Those are the two best movies (according to both critics and fans) in the franchise, anyways. If you really want to, you could also watch Prometheus (2012) and Alien Covenant (2017), but trust me, don’t waste your time with Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997). They’re both regarded as the two worst films in the franchise.

All of the Alien movies are available to watch on Disney+ Hotstar.

Alien Romulus

The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and Aileen Wu.

Fede Alvarez (2013’s Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) is the director and a horror veteran. He worked on the script of the movie as well with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.

Again, Alien Romulus premieres in Malaysian cinemas on 15 August 2024, so stay tuned for our review!