Romulus Director Explains Why The Sci-Fi Tech Has Been So Different Across The Franchise

If you’ve heard one complaint, then you’ve heard them all. No scientists would be as naive as those in “Prometheus.” Why didn’t anyone running from the falling spaceship just turn to the side? Ridley Scott contradicted his own movie by turning the classic visuals of broken-down space miners into an Apple store in space. Now, not only are all of these criticisms wildly off-base and objectively wrong (please allow for some slight hyperbole on my end, it’s all I have) but that last one cuts right to the heart of a debate that could’ve easily consumed Fede Álvarez on “Alien: Romulus,” too.

When asked how he found the right balance between the old-fashioned junker aesthetic prevalent throughout the original “Alien” and the jarringly more advanced technology of “Prometheus,” Álvarez responded with one heck of a clever observation:

“I know a lot of people felt like it makes no sense. But I think we make the mistake when we watch the Nostromo and assume that’s how the entire universe looks like. If I decide to make a movie on Earth today, and I go to the Mojave Desert and I take an old truck because a guy drives a Chevy, if you’re an alien, you’re going to go, ‘That’s what the world looks like.’ But it doesn’t mean there’s not a guy in a Tesla in the city, which would be the ‘Prometheus’ ship. The first movie is truck drivers in a beat-up truck. ‘Prometheus’ is the ship of the richest man in the world.”

While he stops just short of rightfully crowning “Prometheus” as the third-best of them all, it’s clear Álvarez intuitively understands this franchise. If you ask me, that’s all we could’ve hoped for from the next “Alien” director. Bring it on.

“Alien: Romulus” hits theaters on August 16, 2024.