There has recently been a whirlwind of contradictory updates about the process behind Alien: Romulus 2, the planned sequel to the 2024 sci-fi horror film Alien: Romulus by director Fede Álvarez and screenwriter Rodo Sayagues. The original film was the seventh feature in the Alien franchise and offered a standalone story set chronologically between the events depicted in 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens. Starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu, Alien: Romulus charts the story of a gang of space colonists who accidentally fall prey to the vicious Xenomorph during a scavenger mission.

A sequel to the film was announced in October 2024, with Steve Asbell, President of Production at 20th Century Studios, stating that “we’re working on a sequel idea now,” and Álvarez “has an idea that we’re working on.”

However, there have been recent reports that the follow-up film has now been “indefinitely shelved and might not ever happen” and that “there is currently no path forward for the sequel”. Thankfully, Asbell has come to the rescue and put the talks to rest with a simple response, “Nope”, when asked about the scrapping on X.

When it comes to the knotted development of the sequel, director Álvarez and screenwriter Sayagues were initially reported to be working on Alien: Romulus 2 together, with a script being completed. However, September 2025 saw confirmation that Álvarez would be departing from the project. “We just finished the script, actually, for a sequel for Romulus,” the filmmaker shared in September 2025. “But I’m gonna pass the torch on this one as director.”

Álvarez later shared that the reason for his leaving was that the studio wanted a director who would “go for the jugular” with the film, yet he will remain involved as a producer.

The filmmaker had previously told The Hollywood Reporter that the team “really try to think about it more in terms of story and if it needs another chapter and whether people want to know what happens next.”

“So we’ll wait to see what people think and if people ask for it. 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,” he added. “If you think about Alien and Aliens, there’s seven years between them. But we definitely have ideas about where it should go.”

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Additional rumours involved Brian Duffield, writer and director of Whalefall, being hired by 20th Century to take on a new Alien film, without confirmation whether this franchise installment would be Alien: Romulus 2 or another standalone sequel with a new story.

The Alien franchise also consists of the four original films, Alien, Aliens, 1992’s Alien 3 and 1997’s Alien Resurrection; two prequel films, 2012’s Prometheus and 2017’s Alien: Covenant; two spin-offs with the Predator films from 2004 and 2007, and an FX TV series titled Alien: Earth.

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