Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez wanted to capture the "psychosexual fucked-up-ness" of the original

Those rascally Facehuggers are back. Kicking off the final stretch of its years-long gestation period, Alien: Romulus stopped at Comic-Con. Before that little Xenomorph breaks free from 20th Century Studio’s chest cavity, director Fede Álvarez and stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, and Spike Fearn stopped by Hall H for another ill-fated alien recovery mission. 

Bringing the action back to a Xenomorph-infested spaceship floating in through the cosmos, Alien: Romulus is pitched as a classic Alien movie. Romulus frees itself of the creative swerves from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Instead, Álvarez takes a Tokyo Drift approach, setting Romulus between Alien and Aliens.

Although we’re not sure the Fast movies ever got quite as into the “psychosexual fucked-up-ness” of their franchises, to quote Álvarez at the panel. The Don’t Breathe director was in his element, fielding questions (including some submitted by Scott and Guillermo Del Toro) about his connections to the Alien franchise, the delicate balance between nostalgia and making something new, and the need to have fresh faces in his cast to make sure nobody felt safe. Among other things, Álvarez put heavy emphasis on the importance of practical effects, noting that operating the chestburster in one scene shown to fans in attendance required nine puppeteers. He also revealed that he and his cast and crew filmed the movie in chronological order, which means that the actual cast got to experience that same “dropping like flies” experience so common to regular folks in these movies.

In preparation for their Hall H invasion, 20th Century Studios sent around some very cool Alien: Romulus promotional VHS tapes. Those lucky enough to still own a VCR got a special treat: A new clip showing the doomed crew of the Romulus spacecraft smoking weed and taking off, leaving their planet behind for certain death in outer space. Whether that’s the infamous planet LV-426 or not, OSHA must look into this Weyland-Yutani Corporation. They lose a lot of employees to ancient distress calls.

Alien: Romulus opens in theaters on August 16.