Where to stream Alien: Romulus

They say in space, no one can hear you scream but on movie screens, screaming is rife — and we expect plenty of it from Fede Álvarez’s new Alien movie Alien: Romulus. This blood-soaked space horror series has had quite a journey since visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott first snuck it aboard pop culture back in 1979.

After Sigourney Weaver’s Lt. Ellen Ripley survived her first scrape with a Xenomorph on doomed space freighter the Nostromo, she encountered these drooling star beasts three more times alongside James Cameron in 1986’s Aliens, David Fincher in 1992’s Alien 3 and Jean Pierre-Jeunet in 1997’s Alien: Ressurection.

Since then, Ripley’s taken some well-earned downtime as the aliens have continued their reign of terror in a number of spin-offs, some high-brow (see: Scott’s 2012 prequel Prometheus and 2017 sequel Alien: Covenant) and some not so much (see: 2004’s Alien Vs. Predator and 2007 follow up AVP: Requiem).

So where exactly does this new one fit in? Who’s starring in it, and when will be it be on Disney+? Read on to find out everything you need to know about Alien: Romulus.

Where can I stream Alien: Romulus?

Alien: Romulus will be available to buy from Prime Video, Apple TV and Sky Store on Tuesday, 15 October, and will be streaming on Disney+ at a later date. The film originally landed in UK cinemas on Friday, 16 August, and has grossed more than $340m at the global box office.

Is Alien: Romulus worth watching?

Alien: Romulus reviews have been shoved into the airlock and blasted out into (cyber) space. According to movie critics, Álvarez’s take on this classic — and long-running — sci-fi franchise is largely a mixed bag, with the film existing somewhere between the old and the new.

“Is it any good? Holy hell, yeah!” said the Evening Standard, leading their positive review with the suggestion that it “blasts the flagging series back to gory, glorious life.”

Digital Spy wasn’t as easily swayed though, saying “it can only have been done by a fan of the entire Alien series,” before adding that “it’s faithful to its own detriment, a blend of some truly great sequences with recycled ideas that don’t land as well as you’d hope.”

Read full reviews below:

Evening Standard: Supercharged spectacular blasts flagging series back to gory, glorious life (3-min read)

Variety: The Primal Shock and Awe Is Gone, but It’s a Good Video-Game Horror Ride (5-min read)

Digital Spy: Alien: Romulus ends up being too faithful for its own good (5-min read)

Is there a trailer for Alien: Romulus?

Facehuggers skitter and Xenomorphs drool in the second trailer for Alien: Romulus which sheds a little more light on Álvarez’s story. In this latest glimpse, a group get an unfortunate surprise when they infiltrate a seemingly abandoned starship.

Watch it below:

The first trailer for Alien: Romulus arrived in March 2024... in all its claustrophobic, bloody glory. By the looks of it, Álvarez’s Alien is taking us back inside the creepy confines of a starship where the unfortunate crew experiences a run-in with at least one Xenomorph and plenty of Facehuggers.

Watch the first trailer below.

Is Alien: Romulus a direct sequel or a reboot?

Alien: Romulus takes place 20 years after the events of the first film, making it an ‘inbetweenquel’. Scott’s movie was set in 2122, placing Romulus in 2142 (or thereabouts). The events of James Cameron’s Aliens took place in 2179.

Romulus is a stand-alone sequel that requires no knowledge of the previous films — although Álvarez has called it “a love letter to all the other movies”. This makes it the seventh feature film in the primary Alien storyline, and the ninth feature to feature the Xenomorph overall.

The director told Total Film: “If you haven’t seen any Alien movie ever, you’ll have a great time. You won’t feel like you’re missing out on anything. But if you’ve seen one or more — oh, boy, you’ll have a blast.”

Meanwhile, star Cailee Spaeny told Variety: “It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie. They brought the same team from Aliens, the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours.”

News of a new Alien instalment was officially announced back in March 2022 after the Fox and Disney merger had taken place, with Álvarez at the helm and original Alien filmmaker Scott producing. Álvarez is of course no stranger to the horror genre, having previously retooled Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead in 2013 and bringing us the tense home-invasion thriller Don’t Breathe in 2016.

Who’s starring in Alien: Romulus?

Sigourney Weaver doesn’t return for Alien: Romulus. Instead, Álvarez introduces us to a host of newcomers and pits them against a vicious foe, with Mare of Easttown and Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny leading the way.

She’s joined by Shadow and Bone’s Archie Renaux, Industry’s David Jonsson, Superman star Isabela Merced, Away From Home’s Aileen Wu and The Batman’s Spike Fearn.

What happens in Alien: Romulus?

The film’s cryptic official synopsis explains that Romulus will take the franchise “back to its roots.”

The title is a reference to by the myth of Romulus and Remus. “If people aren’t familiar, it’s the creation myth of Rome,” Álvarez said. “Romulus killed Remus. It’s not a siblinghood that went down the right path. [Alien: Romulus] is a film about siblinghood. A lot of the character stories are related to siblinghood.”

Alien: Romulus will be released digitally on Tuesday, 15 October.