'Alien: Romulus' Unveils Monstrous Teaser

Alien: Romulus, the next chapter in the iconic horror franchise, has officially unveiled its first monstrous teaser. The clip features a collage of moments from the upcoming sci-fi flick, and it seems clear that between the horde of facehuggers and starling final shot of a full-fledged Xenomorph, audiences are in for a thriller that will have them on the edge of their seat.

Not a lot of details are available about the plot of Alien: Romulus, but we do know it is set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). The story sees "a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe," per a synopsis. The film opens in theatres on Aug. 16.

Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. It is directed by Fede Álvarez, from a script he wrote with Rodo Sayagues. Alvarez is most well-known for helming the 2013 remake of Evil Dead and the 2016 cult thriller Don't Breathe. 

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.

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.