Michael Sarnoski Lands on Shortlist to Helm the Alien: Romulus Sequel
The hunt is on for a new captain of the Alien: Romulus sequel, and A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski has surged onto the shortlist to replace Fede Alvarez.
Alien: Romulus did exactly what a mid-franchise entry needs to do: it hit, clean and hard. So of course a sequel is moving. The wrinkle? Fede Alvarez helped build it, but he might not be the one calling action on round two.
Where Romulus leaves us
Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues set their story between Alien and Aliens, and pushed the series back toward stripped-down terror: a group of young space colonizers picks through a derelict station and stumbles into the worst meet-cute imaginable with a xenomorph. That back-to-basics setup paired nicely with a cast that clicked on screen:
- Cailee Spaeny as Rain
- Isabela Merced
- David Jonsson as Andy
- Archie Renaux
- Spike Fearn
- Aileen Wu
The sequel: who, when, and maybe who again
20th Century Studios started developing a follow-up a couple months after Romulus hit theaters, with Alvarez and Sayagues digging into the script. The plan has been to keep the focus on survivors Rain (Spaeny) and Andy (Jonsson). Straightforward enough.
For a long minute, everyone expected Alvarez to direct again, which would have made him the first filmmaker outside of Ridley Scott to helm two Alien features. About six months ago, that changed. Alvarez opted to hand the baton off. Now the name making the rounds as the favored choice to replace him is Michael Sarnoski, fresh off A Quiet Place: Day One. Industry chatter has him not just in the mix, but on a short list and currently the preferred candidate.
'We are excited about where it can go. We have almost checked all of the boxes of things that I want to see [in Romulus], and brought back a lot of the things I had not seen in a while. Wherever we go now, we can go into uncharted waters. I think it will be so exciting to go with characters you know from this movie, to a place in the Alien franchise that we have never been before, and to discover things that you have never seen before.'
Why Alvarez stepped back? Here is the talk
There has been a rumor bounce around that Alvarez exited because David Jonsson did not want to return as Andy. A well-sourced reporter pushed back on that and offered a different explanation: Alvarez supposedly wanted to bring back the David android (Michael Fassbender) from the Scott-directed prequels, and that idea reportedly clashed with producer Ridley Scott, who remains involved across new Alien projects. If true, that creative friction could be the reason Alvarez moved aside. None of this is locked in by the studio, but it is what the people who usually know are hearing.
What to watch next
Keep an eye out for official word on the director seat and how much Romulus 2 leans into Spaeny and Jonsson’s duo. If Sarnoski does sign on, expect a filmmaker who knows how to squeeze tension out of silence and tight spaces. Which, for Alien, is kind of the whole ballgame.