A year ago, Fede Alvarez brought the Alien franchise back to life with the well-received Alien: Romulus. It earned $350 million globally, and 20th Century Studios quickly put a sequel in development, with Alvarez writing and presumed to be directing.
But now the filmmaker has revealed he will not be behind the camera but rather is on the hunt for a new director to take over the franchise that stars Cailee Spaeny.
“We just finished the script, actually, for a sequel for Romulus. But I’m gonna pass the torch on this one as director,” he told TooFab Thursday at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. “I’m going to produce it, with Ridley Scott, we’re gonna produce it together, and we’re right now trying to find a new filmmaker to come in.”
He penned the script to the sequel with Romulus co-writer Rodo Sayagues.
Upon release, Alvarez told The Hollywood Reporter the team had ideas for a sequel to the movie, which ended with its two surviving lead characters heading to Yvaga.
“My philosophy is that you should never make [a sequel] in two years. You’ve got to get away. You’ve got to get the audience to really want it,” the filmmaker said at the time. “If you think about Alien and Aliens, there’s seven years between them. But we definitely have ideas about where it should go.”
Both Alien and sister property Predator have enjoyed renewed interest in recent years, thanks to Romulus and the FX series Alien: Earth, and Predator movies such as Prey and the upcoming Predator: Badlands, which arrives on Nov. 7 and stars Elle Fanning.
