‘Alien’ Reboot Cast Reportedly Adds ‘Dora and the Lost City of Gold’ Star

The in-development Alien franchise reboot has not had many updates lately, but it seems to be moving along, according to a new report. Going by the working title Alien: Romulus, the film has reportedly added Dora and the Lost City of Gold star Isabela Merced to its cast, per Deadline. She joins Cailee Spaeny (Bad Times at the El Royale), who was revealed as a cast member back in November.

Very little is known about the new Alien film, other than it’s being directed by Fede Alvarez, who helmed the 2013 remake of Evil Dead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be a standalone project, meaning it will not be directly connected to the events or timeline of the existing films. The new movie is being produced for Hulu, and is part of a plan by 20th Century to produce 10 or more films for the streaming service owned by Disney. Fans will also be excited to learn that Alien director Ridley Scott is set to produce the new film, via his Scott Free production company

Alien was written by Dan O’Bannon, and first opened in wide release in the United States on June 22, 1979. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto as the crew of a doomed crew of a commercial space tug who come face-to-face with a vicious creature — later learned to be Xenomorphs — after responding to the distress beacon from a nearby spaceship. The film’s budget has been estimated at around $11 million, with a box office revenue of close to $200 million.

Alien spawned a handful of sequels, with 1986’s Aliens being written and directed by James Cameron. The film was made on a budget of about $18 million and earned up to $181 million at the box office. In 1992, Alien 3 was released, but received more mixed reviews than it’s predecessors. The David Fincher-directed film has since go on to be somewhat of a cult classic.

The fourth Alien film, Alien Resurrection, opened on Nov. 26, 1997, and was written by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers). The movie was directed by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet. In the 2000s, the xenomorphs returned in two crossover films with the Predator franchise: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). Finally, in 2012, Scoot came back to the Alien world with Prometheus, which told an origin story for the face-huggers. That film was followed up by 2017s Alien: Covenant.