Alien: Romulus star Archie Renaux on the legacy of the franchise, the facehuggers and which alien was the most terrifying

The young British actor had a breakout role in the massive sci-fi hit.

Archie Renaux saw Aliens when he was maybe a little too young for the 1986 James Cameron sci-fi thriller, with his dad showing it to him when he was about eight years old. But the Alien: Romulus breakout star wasn’t alone in that.

“I think it’s a common denominator with the Alien franchise. It’s always someone’s parents [that showed them the movies],” Renaux said with a laugh in a recent interview with For The Win.

MORE: Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez was hilariously banned from the Alien subreddit for ‘impersonating’ himself

Renaux went on to say that cast mates Spike Fearn (Bjorn) and Cailee Spaeney (Rain) were also in the same boat before explaining how much it meant to him and his parents to land a role in a franchise that has been around for 45 years.

“Those films were, like, a big part of that generation,” he said. “They were really, really proud that I was going to get to be a part of it.”

The 26-year-old actor plays Tyler in Fede Alvarez’s reboot of the horror-action franchise, and he found himself face-to-face with both terrifying versions of the titular alien with the facehuggers and the Xenomorph. Since Alvarez was committed to using practical effects where possible, this meant horrifying physical versions of the slimy creatures.

Alvarez let the cast interact with one of the facehugger replicas briefly — Renaux described the horror director as being excited about the creepy crawlies — before acting with them.

“We got to see all the details and what’s on the other side, what it looks like,” Renaux said. “They’re pretty explicit looking. That was our first experience, and then we didn’t get to see too much else until actually getting to set.”

Archie Renaux is eye-to-eye with a Xenomorph in “Alien: Romulus,” the latest installment of the longtime sci-fi horror franchise.

While Renaux shared two exhilarating scenes with the slimy face spiders — both of which will have your heart pounding — it’s the adult Xenomorph that he described as the most terrifying.

“We’ve seen them before in the films and stuff, so now actually seeing one in the flesh is like so, so surreal,” he said. “Those guys that make them really go to town. They [the special effects crew] absolutely smashed it.”

Some of the crew from Aliens was back to work on this film, and that expertise paid off in big ways bringing the ominous beasts to the big screen in a fulfilling way.

“They can really make them move, and the mouth and the inner jaw, they have the kind of drooling-like goo that comes out of their mouth and stuff, and, yeah, once they have everything going, they are genuinely terrifying,” Renaux said.

Alien: Romulus has been a massive box office success, bringing in $50 million domestically and $118 million worldwide in just five days, smashing expectations and surpassing the film’s $80 million budget. Renaux and the cast felt the pressure of taking on a beloved franchise like Alien, but the response has been overwhelming for the young actor.

“To see now the reaction and how positive a lot of it has been, it’s quite unbelievable. It makes us all so proud,” Renaux said.

Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.

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Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez was hilariously banned from the Alien subreddit for ‘impersonating’ himself

A pretty solid impersonation, really.

Director Fede Alvarez should be feeling on top of the world. His Alien: Romulus hit theaters last week to solid reviews and hauled in a wildly impressive $108 million worldwide. This surpasses the film’s budget of $80 million, and the continued word-of-mouth praise and excitement over the movie’s terrifying use of practical effects should have it continue to climb.

MORE: Alien: Romulus review: It’s utterly terrifying and worthy of its place in the Xenomorph universe

Well, Alvarez hit a snag on Tuesday as the Don’t Breathe director found himself banned on Reddit from posting to r/LV426, the Alien subreddit, for attempting to impersonate… Fede Alvarez?

“Got banned from the ALIEN subreddit for apparently trying to impersonate, myself,” Alvarez tweeted with a crying laughing emoji and a screenshot of the banning notification.

Thankfully, things were quickly remedied when the moderators realized their error, but it was hilarious either way. At least they take impersonations very seriously.

via Reddit

Alien: Romulus review: It’s utterly terrifying and worthy of its place in the Xenomorph universe

The Alien franchise is back, and the horror is dialed all the way up.

The Alien universe is back, baby.

The latest entry, Alien: Romulus, hit theaters this week as director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) perfectly balanced the horror/action genres to return Xenomorphs to the big screen.

Alien: Romulus falls on the timeline about 20 years after the happenings of 1979’s Alien, and about 35 years before the Space Marines visit LV-426 in 1986’s Aliens. Weyland-Yutani, the corporation that has been trying to get their hands on the alien specimen for testing and exploitation, tracks down the Xenomorph that Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) “blew out of the [expletive] airlock” in Alien.

MORE: An Alien: Romulus cameo resurrecting a old character has fans buzzing

Unsurprisingly, attempting to experiment on the alien goes horribly wrong for the scientists. As a result, their facility — a massive ship split between parts Romulus and Remus — appears to be dormant in orbit just above the Weyland-Yutani mining station, Jackson’s Star. Tyler (Archie Renaux) enlists the help of Rain (Cailee Spaeny) to travel to the derelict space station in search of cryopods to help them make their escape from the company’s control.

While Spaeny (Priscilla) and Renaux (Upgraded) are wonderful, David Jonsson steals the show as Andy. Jonsson flawlessly plays one of Weyland-Yutani’s older-model androids — or synthetic human, as they like to be called — that goes from twitchy, dad-joke sharing sidekick to company-driven and analytical after an unplanned upgrade.

Jonsson is a more-than-worthy addition to the impressive list of Alien universe androids that includes Ian Holm (Alien), Lance Henriksen (Aliens) and Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, Alien: Covenant). He elicits sympathy and unease as he switches between the versions of Andy.

On the whole, Romulus finds a way to mix in elements of its predecessors while bringing new — and terrifying — components to the universe. If you wanted not only way more face huggers but also more terrifying face huggers, well, you’re in luck. There are brutal deaths, chest bursters, explosions, bad decisions and more.

The third act will be talked about a lot, and for good reason as it dials up the horror aspect of the movie as far as it goes. While Romulus is not the best in the Alien franchise, it’s one that earned its spot in the upper echelon.

Movie: Alien: Romulus
Release Date: August 16 
Director: Fede Alvarez
Stars: Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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An Alien: Romulus cameo resurrecting a old character has fans buzzing

An unexpected appearance from an Alien franchise legend.

Moviegoers taking in the new Alien: Romulus were in for quite a few jump scares and surprises as director Fede Alvarez brought one of sci-fi’s best properties back to the big screen on Friday, August 16. One of those surprises came in the form of a cameo from an unexpected character.

[Warning: spoilers for Alien: Romulus follow]

MORE: Ranking all of the Alien franchise movies from Aliens to Prometheus

One of the massive twists of the original 1979 Alien was the reveal that Ash, played by the late Ian Holm, was an android. Not only was he not human, he was also sabotaging the crew in a plot to deliver the titular alien to the nefarious Weyland-Yutani corporation.

An android model — or rather half of one — similar to Ash plays a large part in Romulus. This time going by Rook, the character has Holm’s likeness despite the Lord of the Rings actor passing in 2020. This appears to be done similarly to how Gareth Edwards “brought back” Governor Tarkin, previously played by Peter Cushing, in Rogue One.

The technique seemingly used actor Daniel Betts as the “facial and vocal performance” of Rook, while Ian Holm is listed as the “facial and vocal reference” for the Science Officer. Betts’ performance would then be digitally meshed with Holm’s likeness for the finished product.

It’s likely more will come out about how this was fully executed now that the movie has been released, but the utilization of his likeness has already garnered some criticism (again, much like Cushing’s was for Rogue One). Some fans have wondered why Lance Henriksen — the actor behind Bishop, the synthetic human in 1986’s Aliens — wasn’t used instead.

Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.

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