Dora vs. the Xenomorph: Isabela Merced cast in Fede Alvarez's Alien movie

You’d be forgiven for forgetting, but it’s now been six long years since the Alien franchise last blasted its way into theaters, with Ridley Scott’s 2017 Fassbinder Vs. Fassbinder feature Alien: Covenant. In that gap, the franchise has been hit, strangely enough, with many of the same issues that have been hampering its far more optimistic sci-fi cousins over in the world of Star Trek: An inability to put together a film project that can guarantee the studio “Marvel money” (as opposed to Covenant’s modest-but-extant $130 million return on investment); seeming inertia with new ideas; and even the presence of Fargo creator Noah Hawley, whose FX TV adaptation of the franchise is supposedly set to start filming later this year.

Now, though, Deadline reports that the film branch of the House That Xenomorphs Built (Out Of, We Think, Some Sort Of Mucus) is actually showing some signs of forward movement. Which is to say that the other in-the-works Alien project, the Scott-produced, Fede Alvarez-directed movie continuation of the series, has just cast some new monster chum: Rosaline star Isabela Merced, a.k.a. the live-action Dora the Explorer from the… holy shit, we just remembered they made a live-action Dora The Explorer movie.

Okay, sorry, give us a second.

Anyway: Merced joins a cast that, so far, has only one other name on it, i.e., Cailee Spaeny, lately of Mare Of Easttown. And that’s basically all we actually know about this latest installment in one of the longest-running film franchises on the planet, beyond the fact that it’s being directed by Alvarez, who made a name for himself with taut 2016 thriller Don’t Breathe and the 2013 remake of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise. Alvarez’s Alien film was originally announced on March 4, 2022, so the news of Merced’s casting comes as a sort of early birthday present for its own existence. Happy birthday, news that a new Alien movie exists!