Summary
Fede Álvarez’sAlien: Romulusis returning to a crucial point intheAlientimelinewith its story, and in so doing looks set to answer a major unsolved mystery from the original 1979 film. Part of the power of theAliensaga comes from its mysterious and often unexplained story details. Even after Ridley Scott’s prequels, it’s still unclear how the Engineer ship ended up on LV-426, preserving the sense of terrifying discovery that made the firstAlienso haunting. However, while maintaining some mysteries is important for the franchise’s overall legacy, resolving some select plot points could also enhance the action.
Alien: Romulusarrives in theaters on August 10, 2025.
Over the years,Alienmovies have frequently addressed and rewritten crucial aspects of the franchise’s lore. James Cameron’s first sequel, for instance, introduced the idea of an alien queen – explaining where the original movie’s strange eggs could have come from. Taking things even further,PrometheusandAlien: Covenantcompletely transformed what many fans understood about the alien’s origin, turning it from a by-product of evolution to an engineered monster. It’s unclear whether Álvarez’s movie will offer anything this radical. However, fromthe officialAlien: Romulustrailer, it seems one ongoing mystery will finally be addressed.
Alien: Romulus - Release Date, Cast, Story, Trailer & Everything We Know
With Fede Álvarez at the helm of the new Alien movie the franchise is heading in a promising direction, but what is Alien: Romulus about?
Alien: Romulus Is Bringing Back The Original Movie’s Blue Mist
It Hasn’t Been Seen Since The Very First Movie
While theAlien: Romulustrailer reveals dozens of intriguing details about Fede Álvarez’s film, one of the most subtle – yet potentially fascinating – isthe return of the blue mist that first appeared in Ridley Scott’s original movie. Approximately 30 seconds into the trailer, Andy (David Jonsson) places his hand on the floor of a corridor, breaking a layer of strange blue mist hovering a few inches off the ground. While this may seem innocuous, it is in fact a direct callback to audiences’first-ever encounter with the xenomorphthreat and a question that has dogged fans for over four decades.
…despite the mist’s seemingly crucial role in the alien lifecycle, it has not been seen again in the franchise – until theAlien: Romulustrailer.
The brief shot mirrors the moment from the originalAlienwhen Kane explores the bowels of the Engineer ship. When he rappels down into a cavernous “cave of some sort”, he describes seeing rows and rows of “leathery objects, like eggs or something”. Crucially, he then identifies “a layer of mist just covering the eggs that reacts when broken”. The suggestion is thatthis is what prompts the original xenomorph egg to open, unleashing the facehugger. However, despite the mist’s seemingly crucial role in the alien lifecycle, it has not been seen again in the franchise – until theAlien: Romulustrailer.
Alien’s Blue Mist Was Never Fully Explained
It Was Never Clear How It Worked, Or Where It Came From
Exactly how the blue mist works, how it appeared on the Engineer ship, and why it hasn’t been seen since the first movie have been unresolved issues for 45 years. As Kane’s experience demonstrates,it seems like the mist may be a form of atmospheric protection. InAlien, steam and other gases are seen struggling to break through the mist’s surface, suggesting that it might be a way of maintaining optimal conditions for the eggs. Its eerie blue hue also suggests an artificial origin – raising even more questions about how it is being generated.
All these details, coupled with the absence of a queen in the originalAlienmovie, make the blue mist a crucial and underexplored aspect of franchise lore. Its presence suggests that, unlike the organic lifecycle seen inAliens,the original xenomorph eggs were there artificiallyand deliberately, creating further questions about the whole franchise’s origin. Considering thatAlien: Romulusis set betweenAlienandAliens, it seems like the blue light’s return could be a sign that the 2024 film will address aspects of the franchise’s first films that have hitherto remained unclear.
Alien’s Blue Mist Is Just Part Of A Wider Original Movie Trend
There Were Many Similar Mysteries
If the return ofAlien’s blue mist does herald a return to other previously abandoned franchise details,Alien: Romuluswill have plenty to explore. In fact, the existence of the blue mist and lack of explanation around its origin is just part of a trend that runs throughout the first film,where seemingly important details are left deliberately obscure and mysterious. The whole question ofwhat happened to the Space Jockey, for example, gives the sense thatAlienis really beginning in medias res, with another terrifying tragedy having already befallen a different species.
IfAlien: Romulusis revisiting one seemingly insignificant detail, like the blue mist, there’s no reason why it can’t address… bigger questions…
There are dozens of otherAliendetails that are also unexplained. Even with the attempted background provided byPrometheusandAlien: Covenant, it’s still unclearhow the original eggs got onboard the Engineer ship, nor exactly how Weyland-Yutani knew where to send the Nostromo crew. IfAlien: Romulusis revisiting one seemingly insignificant detail, like the blue mist,there’s no reason why it can’t address these bigger questions– potentially making it one of the most significant installments in the franchise to date.
What The Return Of The Blue Mist Means For Alien: Romulus
It’s A Clear Connection To The Original Film
Although it may seem minor, the presence of the blue mist reveals some key details aboutAlien: Romulus. For starters, it underscoreshow well-versed the movie is in franchise lore– with an awareness of details that previous films have either overlooked or deemed unimportant. For long-term fans of the series, this is an exciting development that bodes well for the movie’s commitment to what made the franchise originally successful.
While Álvarez has previously outlined his hatred for plot spoilers, the combination of the blue mist’s role in the originalAlienand details from theRomulustrailer potentially provide further narrative clues. Working on the theory that the blue mist is some sort of artificial barrier, its inclusion suggests thattheAlien: Romuluscast’s encounter is part of a manufactured scenario rather than something more organic. The revelation thatAlien: Romulustakes its name from a lab lends further weight to this theory, reinforcing the idea that the blue mist could be a way of controlling xenomorph encounters and protecting the eggs.
Although it’s impossible to say prior to release preciselyhow the xenomorph threat will manifest inAlien: Romulus, the return of the blue mist suggests that the film will recreate key aspects of the encounter from the firstAlienmovie. Instead of further additions to franchise lore, the evidence indicates thatAlien: Romuluswill instead explain details that were already prevalent in the series. This could be an exciting sign that Álvarez’s film represents a return to what made theAlienseries so iconic instead of getting bogged down in revisionist stories that overcomplicate the wider narrative.
