Fede Álvarez’s New ‘Alien’ Movie Starts Filming Next Week in Budapest

‘Shadow and Bone’s Archie Renaux is among the new faces joining the cast.

Filming has officially begun on Fede Álvarez‘s Alien project and the Evil Dead remake maestro has landed the rest of his would-be victims for the Xenomorphs to tear into. Previously, Cailee Spaeny was tapped to lead the ninth installment of the long-running sci-fi franchise, but now she’ll have David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu joining her.

Progress on Álvarez’s Alien flick has been kept tightly under wraps as work continued on the project, though things are likely to get a bit more public and a lot faster now that cameras are officially rolling. Plot details are also scarce, with only a very vague description of the plot of the film. In the film, which has previously gone under the working title Alien: Romulus, a group of young people find themselves facing down the most horrifying life forms in the known universe, presumably the Xenomorphs, on a foreign planet. It represents a bit of a departure from the more adult, militaristic settings of the previous films, instead seemingly putting the focus on the less-experienced, younger survivors as they try to fend off the Xenomorphs and their vicious facehuggers.

To fit with the premise, the cast brought on board is full of fresh faces to complement Spaeny. Jonsson recently enjoyed a breakout for his role in Industry and now has Rye Lane coming up later this month while Renaux has enjoyed a bit of a recent breakout of his own with The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Catherine Called Birdy, Morbius, and, most recently, Season 2 of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. Merced’s star has been on the rise for some time now, boasting turns in Transformers: The Last Knight and Dora: The Lost City of Gold, and Rosaline. Fearn, like Renaux, also started receiving more attention in 2022 with The Batman and Aftersun both on his resume. Wu stands out as the newcomer of the group with only one acting role to her name in the short Closing Doors. She has a bit more experience in other filmmaking roles, however, executive producing the TV movie Away From Home.

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Álvarez Has a Killer Team for His Alien Project

Álvarez seems primed to deliver a gory and unique take on the Alien franchise given his history with the Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe, but he has a strong creative team helping him make his project a reality. Ridley Scott, the mastermind of the original Alien and director of both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant is on board to produce with Michael Pruss, who has Boston Strangler coming up, through their Scott Free banner. Brent O’Connor, Elizabeth Cantillon, and Tom Moran round out the team as executive producers.

Things are getting exciting for the Alien franchise with this project getting underway. There’s also a TV series in the works from Noah Hawley at FX that looks promising, and, with Marvel Comics’ recent creation of a 20th Century Studios imprint, there’s bound to be plenty more comics based in the world of the long-running franchise on the way.

Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Álvarez’s Alien project as production continues. In the meantime, check out a previous interview with the writer/director regarding another of his horror works, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, below.