Romulus’ Sequel to Avoid an ‘Alien 3’ Situation

Alien: Earth just dropped a chest-burstingly good episode ahead of next week’s finale (read io9’s recap here), but fans are just as eager to learn what’s next for the sci-fi series on the big screen. One who would know is Fede Álvarez, who helmed last year’s Alien: Romulus and is closely involved in its sequel. He’s not directing it, but he’s helping choose who does—and he co-wrote the script with a bit of important Alien history in mind.

While some fans (ahem) think Alien 3 is actually pretty entertaining, it is a universally acknowledged truth that the 1992 David Fincher-directed release does two characters from 1986’s Aliens extremely dirty.

After Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), her sorta romantic interest Hicks (Michael Biehn), her sorta adopted daughter Newt (Carrie Henn), and mangled heroic android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) escaped the dreaded LV-426, Alien 3 tells us, they end up crash-landing on a prison planet. Only Ripley survives, aside from a facehugger whose presence is necessary for Alien 3 to retain its expected creature horror.

It’s devastating not just for Ripley but also for the audience, who surely would have liked to see Hicks and Newt carry on after narrowly escaping the terrible fates met by nearly every other character in Aliens. Álvarez, who clearly has a deep love of the franchise, is well aware of this fact, and he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to the survivors of Romulus.

According to a YouTube video from Epic Film Guys Jeremy (via ComingSoon) documenting Álvarez on a panel at Cincinnati’s recent HorrorHound Weekend, the director feels fans’ specific brand of Alien 3 pain. After explaining he always intended to just direct one Alien entry, he noted:

“But we [Álvarez and his co-writer, Rodo Sayagues] did want to write it. Mostly it’s because we love the characters we created, so we want to make sure no one kills them right at the beginning of the next one… They went and killed Hicks and Newt just like that, and we were like, ‘Hey, let’s not let that happen.’ So we wrote it and made sure they stayed alive, and now we can let someone else make it.”

Good news for fans of Cailee Spaeny’s Rain and David Jonsson’s Andy, who may yet live again—and keep the Alien series streak of exploring unconventional sibling relationships (with Alien: Earth now in the mix) alive too.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.